AMOS ABUGA
Nairobi Central Business District received rare guests Friday wailing paralympians demanding to be heard by Ministry of Sports and Culture senior officials.
Instead of the normal hawkers trading their products, this time it was four different Sports federation demanding the Ministry of Sports and Culture to attend to their cries.
The Paralympic team that arrived recently with a haul of medals from Marrakesh, Morocco, the Baseball, Softball and the Kabadii Sports National teams turned up at Kencom House compound demanding for an audience with the Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohamed or the PS Peter Kaberia who were said to be away for the better part of Friday morning.
The aggrieved players were demanding outstanding allowances, air tickets for their upcoming national assignments and recognition after claiming they were not being given the respect they deserve by the ministry.
Baseball team captain Elizabeth Wairimu was at pains demending to the told what they would tell their parents who had catered for their training preparations and daily upkeep.
She said some players had come all the way from Mombasa.
The team will be featuring in the forthcoming Pre-qualifiers for the Olympic games to be held in Pretoria, South Africa from May 8-12. The team was tentatively set to jet out on Monday May 6 but by Friday had not received travelling visas, air tickets and allowances for the contingent of 14 players, and five officials. Softball President Francis Karugu and team manager Peter Anyanzwa described the situation as serious.
