Kenya's participation in FIBA World Cup qualifiers hang by a thread as Morans still stranded

Kenya's hopes of taking part at the FIBA Africa World Cup qualifiers set for July 1 to 3 in Cairo in Egypt continue to dwindle away with fresh development being that the team is yet to leave the country.

A contingent of seven players was set to leave the country for Cairo via Dar es Salaam on Thursday night but that did not happen due to visa issues while three more -Joel Awich, Tom 'Bush' Wamukota, and Albert Onyango- are set to link up with the rest of the squad in Egypt.

Kenya Morans had earlier been declared unable to travel due unavailability of seat space, a communication that prompted the world governing body to take it upon themselves to find those spaces for the players and technical bench. 

Twists and turns as Morans finally cleared to travel

Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) Secretary General Ambrose Kisoi confirmed on Friday morning that the team was yet to hit the runway but insisted they were doing everything possible to have the stalemate resolved, adding that they were engaging FIBA to see whether the game slated for tonight would be pushed to another day.

"Whereas we will get visas on arrival in Egypt, we were required to have Visa to Dar es Salaam and that is what we are trying to sort. We are also trying to engage FIBA to see if our match for tonight can be rescheduled to a different day," Kisoi said.

Morans were set to play Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) today at 6 PM initially but FIBA pushed the throw off time to 1030 PM to allow the team enough time to make it to Cairo.

It took the intervention of FIBA on Thursday for the team to have hopes of traveling to Cairo.

"We did a letter to FIBA expressing our inability to travel, despite their help with the expenses and after extensive consultations following the letter, they took it upon themselves to find us the seat space and we are now able to travel," Kisoi had confirmed on Thursday.

Griffin Ligare is the only Kenyan-based player who has made the team that has its work cut out in Egypt as they look to overturn a three-match deficit for a chance to advance in the qualifiers.

The team also travels with Sadat Gaya as the only coach with Ongwae expected to double up as coach-cum player, in the absence of Cliff Owuor. Angela Luchivya travels as the team manager.