More theories and details surrounding Ferdinand Omanyala’s visa delays that almost saw him miss the World Athletic Championships in Oregon, US, continue to emerge.
Athletics Kenya(AK) is the latest to provide information about the issue that elicited lots of reactions among Kenyans who faulted the government for doing so little in supporting Kenyan champions.
AK said that Omanyala is to blame for his troubles and nobody else as reports had earlier indicated.
Through a statement from the body’s President Gen (Rtd) Jackson Tuwei, AK noted that the African 100m record holder failed to undertake an individual assessment test at the US Embassy visa section as required and therefore nothing could have been done at that point to help him.
“It is important to mention that Ferdinand Omanyala went for Visa Biometrics at the Embassy of the United States in Nairobi on July 7, 2022, alongside other athletes. The rest were issued their visas 2 days later while Omanyala’s passport was not released. When we enquired why, we were informed that he needed to fill in an additional form referred to as supplementary questions for visa applicants to verify some facts,” Tuwei said.
On the issue of 32 joyriders being ferried to Oregon at the expense of athletes, Tuwei refuted the claims saying that Athletics Kenya is only aware of three government officials who traveled with the delegation to US for the championships.
“The allegation that 32 government officials traveled to Oregon unprocedural is news to Athletics Kenya. To the best of our knowledge, only three Government officials have traveled to Oregon for the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Athletics Kenya expects the Cabinet Secretary to travel to the games as well as have scheduled meetings with Nike and World Athletics,” he said.
Omanyala was able to get his visa and arrived in Oregon less than 3 hours before his race began. He however failed to qualify for the finals after coming fifth in the semis.
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