Kenya risks missing out on Amputee football World Cup

NAIROBI - Due to lack of funds, Kenya may miss the Amputee Football World Cup that gets underway next week in Mexico, said a sports official on Wednesday.

The global tournament is scheduled to commence on Oct 23 and end on Nov 6. Kenya has selected a team comprising 15 players and five officials for the event.

The team presented an initial budget of 230,000 US dollars to the government to cater for all expenses that included air tickets, purchase of uniform, allowances, and insurance cover, but the amount was reduced to 130,000 dollars before being sliced further down to 66,000 dollars.

"We have only one week and yet there's no word from the ministry officials. They treated us the same in 2014 by making available the tickets to Mexico at the last minute. What do we do?" Peter Oloo, Secretary General of the Kenya National Amputee Football Federation (KAFF), said at the sports ministry where the team spent the better of the day.

Oloo said it was unfair to ignore the team's travel plans considering that most of the players who have been training in preparation for the competition were doing so under dire constraints especially those who traveled from outside Nairobi.

"I want to believe that we are not being treated this way because ours is a team of people with disabilities. However, I am sure if it were a ream of able-bodied people, they would have been handled differently," Oloo said.

He said the team has great potential, considering that three players; Nicholas Keiyo, Mohamed Munga and Dalmas Otieno who play professional amputee football in Turkey traveled to Kenya using their own resources.

A ministry official told Xinhua that the federation ambushed them without no prior notice but promised to that they will come up with a solution in the next few days.

The team, which was slated to jet out on Oct 23 was drawn in a tough Group F alongside Turkey, US and Iran.

This would be Kenya's second time to participate in the quadrennial event.