After the annoucement by Sports Cabinet Secretary (CS) Amina Mohamed that sports in Kenya would re-open with the exception that contact sports, including volleyball, football, hockey, boxing, rugby, taekwondo, basketball, and handball were classified under contact sports and for the matter remain closed.
Malkia Strikes coach Paul Bitok believes that this decision by the government will have a devastating impact on the team’s volleyball activities.
“Europe and some North African countries have resumed their activities. Last weekend, Egyptian volleyball men’s teams Al Ahly and Zamalek played to determine the winner of their league,” he said.
“That shows other nations are putting things in order. We had drafted our league fixtures in anticipation for the restart of the league next month, but with the new guidelines I’m afraid we might lag behind and it is sad,” Bitok added.
Kenya will play at the in the Olympic Games rescheduled for next year in Tokyo, Japan and Kenya clubs that qualified for the Africa Club championship will compete in the games schedules for December but because of lack of training, both the national team and the clubs face the danger of poor performance he said.
“The national team and Kenyan clubs that qualified for the annual continental club championship should be training. How do we expect them to perform against opponents that are training? asked Bitok.
Bitok called upon to the Ministry of Sports to reconsider categorizing volleyball as a contact sport.
Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) league champions General Service Unit and Kenya Ports Authority will represent Kenya in the men’s category, while Kenya Prisons, KCB Women’s Volleyball Team and Kenya Pipeline will compete on the women’s side.
