NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 21 – Trouble is brewing for the Kenya Prisons Women’s Volleyball team after the State Department for Correctional Services under which they fall ordered for their immediate repatriation to the country on Thursday.

According to a statement signed by Principle Secretary Zainab Hussein, the team was out of the country without the consent of the department and they had neither financed nor cleared the trip and says they were surprised of the team’s absence from the country.

“Given the breach of protocol and the contravention of rules regarding public servants’ travel overseas, the government has immediately organized for their repatriation tonight,” the shocking statement said.

“Whilst the government acknowledges and supports sports as one of the many sources of our national pride, we regret this turn of events, which has caused the people of Kenya undue embarrassment,” the statement added.

-Living in limbo

Prisons have been living in limbo in Cairo where they arrived just a few hours to the championship that served off last weekend.

Their travel to North Africa was delayed over clearance issues but they finally managed to leave. But in Cairo, the team’s passports were allegedly confiscated after they failed to clear pending hotel bills.

According to a report in the Daily Nation today, the team will be on the next flight home today after the Kenyan embassy in cairo cleared the pending bills and checked the team out of their hotel even before they play their classification matches on Friday.

Prisons who are the reigning Kenyan champions lost 3-2 to home side El Shams yesterday to extinguish their hopes of making it into the quarter finals and were scheduled to play the 9-16 classification match against Congo’s DGSP.

-Embassy employee

“Someone has come here and introduced himself as an employee of the Kenyan Embassy. He is clearing the bills and checking us out of the hotel. We were supposed to train (for our next match) between 1-2pm (Egypt time) but that will not happen,” Prisons team manager David Kilundo is quoted as saying by the Daily Nation.

The consequent withdrawal by the team now means they and by extension the Kenya Volleyball federation stand at the risk of being heavily fined by the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB).