NAIROBI, Kenya, November 13 – Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen has rubbished claims the government abandoned the national women’s amputee football team at the Frankfurt Airport in Germany en route to Kenya.
Murkomen accused certain individuals of capturing videos of the players without their consent and spreading false narratives.
“Contrary to the misleading claims circulating online, no complaints were raised by the players, managers, or accompanying ministry officials. Unfortunately, someone abused their privileged access by capturing video content without consent, violating the team’s privacy and misrepresenting the situation as abandonment,” he said.
The CS sought to clarify that the players were provide accommodation in the airport lounge by Lufthansa Airlines because they could not stay in hotels outside the airport for lack of Schengen visas.
“During the i3-hour layover, Lufthansa made special arrangements to accommodate the team in a reserved airport lounge equipped with beds— a rare courtesy that allowed the team to rest comfortably as they awaited their flight,” he said.
Murkomen added: “The team members did not have Schengen visas, which prevented them from staying in hotels outside the airport. Considering their special needs, Lufthansa provided suitable in-airport accommodation, which was not even extended to the accompanying officials.”
Murkomen added that all the players’ allowances had been settled and that his ministry had made suitable travel arrangements for the team.
“Prior to their departure, the team players and officials were paid all their local training expenses as well as competition and travel allowances for the 7 days in local training camp and 9 days for the foreign competition including and up to the time they arrive in Nairobi tonight. The allowances are international standard rates that are paid to all athlètes representing their country and cover personal needs such as meals,” he said.
The CS added: “The travel arrangements included the most convenient routing from Colombia to Nairobi via Europe, flying Lufthansa, having departed Colombia on 11th November. The team arrived in Frankfurt at 4:00 PM with a scheduled connection to Nairobi at 11:00 AM today.”
The team were on their way from Colombia where they finished fourth after losing 1-0 to Poland in their third-place playoff match.
Social media was ablaze on Wednesday morning after videos emerged of the players spread across the airport floor, covered with jackets and blankets.
Kenyans on Twitter (KOT) were up in arms, directing their anger at the government over what they termed as a nonchalant attitude towards its sportsmen and women.
It is the latest in what has been a trend of the government being caught with its pants down.
In September this year, the Ministry was left with egg in their faces after the national kabbadi team camped at their Talanta Plaza headquarters demanding for release of funds to enable them compete at the Beach World Championships in Iran.
The situation spiraled into an unsavoury one when the team were told to go to the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) only to find out that the Ministry had not yet organised their air tickets.
They did manage to travel for the global competition from where they returned with bronze.
