Kenyan clubs chase elusive African volleyball crown

Kenyan clubs will be seeking redemption at this year’s women’s African Club Championships that gets underway on Saturday in Kelibia Tunisia, after going for seven editions without victory.

Local champions Kenya Prisons, KCB and Kenya Pipeline are the country’s representatives at the annual event.

Prisons were the last Kenyan team to win the title in 2013 in Madagascar after a hard fought 3-2 win over GS Pétroliers of Algeria.

Prisons last year in Kelibia, bagged bronze medal behind CS Sfaxien and winners Carthage both of Tunisia.

KCB on the other hand, last participated in the event in 2019 and were placed a distant ninth.

Pipeline, who last won the title in 2006, finished fifth last year.

KCB and Pipeline arrived Keliba on Thursday night and held light training Friday ahead of the technical meeting later in the night.

“We are targeting a podium finish. We have trained well and the management has been supportive . It will only be fair if we return the favour,”  said KCB captain Edith Wisa before departing for Tunisia.

“We want to go for the title. Luckily, this time round, the top three clubs from Kenya will grace the event and that makes it more interesting and competitive,” added Prisons captain Brackcides Agala.

“This squad is better than last year’s. We want to get back our lost glory,” said Kenya Pipeline captain Rose Magoi.

It therefore remains to be seen how the Kenyan clubs will fare in this year's edition where the turnout has improved after Covid-19 prevented a good number of clubs from participating in the 2021 edition.

Only 10 teams attended last year’s tournament while 18 teams had confirmed participation in this year’s championship.

Carthage and Kelibia of Tunisia, Pipeline and KCB of Kenya, National Alcohol (Ethiopia), Mimosa( Ivory Coast), La Loi (Democratic Republic of Congo), record holders Al Ahly of Egypt had all arrived in Tunisia by Friday.

Others were FAP (Cameroon), Customs (Nigeria), Rwanda Revenue Authority and Armee Patrotique Rwandaise both from Rwanda.

Others confirmed teams yet to arrive by the time of going to press were Kenya Prisons (Kenya), Ndeje University (Uganda), El Wak( Ghana), Chief Naval (Nigeria), Bafia(Cameroon), UZ Wolves (Zimbabwe) and Wolaita Sodo University(Ethiopia).