Kenya has withdrawn from this year’s Federation of International de Volleyball (FIVB) World Grand Prix set to go down in Peru from July 7- August 8 due to lack of sufficient funds.

Malaika Strikers who are the 2015 Grand Prix group 3 winners had been pooled against  leg host Peru, Puerto Rico and Czech Republic.

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) which still owes the international mother body Sh8 million in arrears arising from the last two editions, pulled the Kenyan side, Malkia Strikers out of the competition after they failed to raise the Sh15 million required to take care of the team.

“Going to take part in the event will mean we’ll just be incurring more debts because we are in a tough group and our chances of winning are very slim,” said KVF President Waithaka Kioni.

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) which still owes the international mother body Sh8 million in arrears arising from the last two editions, pulled the Kenyan side, Malkia Strikers out of the competition after they failed to raise the Sh15 million required to take care of the team.

“I would have loved to take this team to this championship to gain exposure but it is so unfortunate that we won’t because we don’t have the funds,” added Kioni.

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Kenya has since been replaced by Colombia who will now join Trinidad and Tobago, Venezuela, South Korea and Hungary as the new entrants to the elite competition.

In 2015, Kenya made history as the first African country to have won an international trophy when Malkia Strikers lifted the prestigious World Grand Prix – Group 3 in Australia.

According to  Kioni little money they have will be used to prepare the national Under-23 team to the World Champions.

The 12 teams are drawn in nine pools of four teams. In each pool, all teams will compete in round robin format. The results of all nine pools will be combined into one ranking table with the hosts and the top three ranked teams playing in the final round.