Kenyan roll ball seeks mainstream recognition

The Kenya Roll Ball Federation is calling on the government to treat them with the respect as they do other sports disciplines in the country.

The federation’s first vice chairman Geoffrey Barasa lamented that they feel relegated to an inferior class despite the fact that their national teams are the world reigning champions.

Barasa claimed the teams are often barred from accessing training facilities at Kasarani Stadium with preference given to other indoor games such as volleyball and basketball.

“It’s sad that most of the time we are denied opportunities to train in the indoor arena at Kasarani and other teams such as volleyball and basketball are preferred yet they can’t match what we have achieved for this country in terms of medals,” said Barasa.

He added the lack of sponsors in the sport was down to attitude towards roll ball and urged corporate brands to consider international achievements when awarding sponsorships.

“Despite our outstanding performance in the past four years, it has been very difficult for us to convince sponsors to come on board and support our league, most of them are biased towards football, athletics and other established sports leaving us out,” added Barasa.

Kenya is the current world champion having scooped gold in both men and women categories in the world cup in Pune India, in April this year.