National volleyball teams have been forced to train without power and water at the Safaricom Indoor Arena, Kasarani ahead of next month’s African Nation Cup-cum-World Championship qualifiers.
The women’s team will take part in the continental event set for October 7-14 in Yaounde, Cameron while their male counterparts are set participate in the October 20-30 edition in Cairo, Egypt.
Kenya Volleyball Federation technical director David Lung’aho decried the development saying the timing was wrong.
Lung’aho said the teams which have split their training sessions into two with womens training in the morning hours, as men’s team train in the afternoon have been without power and water for the last three days.
“There have been disconnection of water and power at the venue for three days now and even as we are speaking now (yesterday), there is no power and it’s unfortunate that teams have to train under these conditions when they are few days away from the championships,” said Lung’aho who double up as the KVF league leaders Kenya Prisons women’s team head coach.
However, Sports Kenya Acting Director General Saima Ondimu decried the situation, saying the facility is cash-trapped after they failed to generate revenue when the facility was under lock and key in the run-up to the IAAF World Under-18 Championships.
She also alleged that federations, and KVF in particular, owe then heavily in subsidised debts which has made it difficult for the parastatal to meet basic operations like paying water and electricity bills as well as general supplies.
“It’s not that we are denying them on purpose but it is a situation that we have found ourselves in,” she said. The federations owe us a lot of money. Interestingly, they will run to other facilities when they have money but return to us when they have none,” she added.
“KVF also owe us quite a huge amount for the days the teams have been training here. All in all we are doing everything possible to see to it that the facility gets the services back.