How Kenyan MPs got lost in Tokyo for two days
A delegation of Kenyan legislators required two days to trace the national women volleyball team’s location here in Tokyo.
The five man delegation from the Parliamentary Sports Committee are here to attend a series of seminars related to the ongoing FIVB World Cup and follow the national team’s progress at the competition.
All expenses for the trip are billed to the taxpayer.
The five MPs arrived here on Sunday without first contacting either the Sports Ministry or Kenya Volleyball Federation in Nairobi to provide the crucial link up and arrange for the appointments.
To make matters worse, the delegation claimed to have “misplaced” the contacts of the Kenyan Embassy in Tokyo, which would have certainly made the search much lighter.
And so the frantic search for the contacts and location of the Malkia Strikers started for the legislators in Tokyo. All that time, the legislators could only be able to watch the “volleyball action” on TV.
The desperate search eventually proved successful some 48 hours after it began when the legislators finally ended up at the 47 storied Keio plaza hotel where the Malkia Strikers are based.
They could however only meet the team a day later because the players were battling it out with Russia at that time.
Come Wednesday, the legislators finally got to meet the team and even talked to the players about the “challenges the team may may be facing”.
Eventually the lawmakers – with help from the volleyball delegation – got contacts to the embassy and were able to purchase tickets at Sh. 7,000 each to watch the Kenya versus Japan match on Wednesday evening.