Sports Principle Secretary Ambassador Peter Kaberia. Photo/TIMOTHY OLOBULU
NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug 1- The Sports Ministry says it is in touch with Team Kenya’s leadership in Asaba, Nigeria as well as the embassy to ensure the athletes smoothly leave the Delta State Region after the completion of the Africa Senior Athletics Championship on Sunday, and don’t go through the same problem they went though travelling there.
Principal Secretary for Sports Kirimi Kaberia says they will ensure all relevant arrangements are made on Sunday for availability of a flight to ferry the athletes back to Lagos.
“We have been in touch with the team all through and also the embassy has played a great role to ensure they travelled today. We will also be in touch to ensure the same does not happen when they are leaving after the championship,” Kaberia said in a press briefing on Wednesday evening.
The team faced difficulty travelling to Asaba from Lagos and spent close to 48 hours in the airport lounge after arriving on Monday due to unavailability of connecting flights, before ultimately leaving on Wednesday morning.
Kenyan athletes sleeping in the Lagos Airport Lounge after being stranded. PHOTO/Courtesy
They arrived an hour and a half later, with the competition kicking off in the afternoon.
“This was not our doing because we had been in constant communication with the Local Organizing Committee there and everything was well planned. They (Nigeria) did not have the capacity to handle such a high number of athletes coming in with few flights available,” Sports Chief Administrative Secretary Noor Hassan Noor added.
Athletes had voiced their concern on social media all through the ordeal especially missing vital hours of training and final sharpening ahead of the competitions.
