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Napsa moan ‘heavy’ Nairobi traffic ahead of Gor clash


Napsa Stars have complained of ‘heavy traffic’ in Nairobi ahead of this weekend’s continental match against Gor Mahia.

The Zambian team, commonly referred to as the pensioners by their local football fans, are in the Kenyan capital ahead of the Caf Confederation Cup play-off match against the Kenyan champions at the Nyayo Stadium on Saturday.

The visiting team, who incidentally have Kenyan duo David Odhiambo and Shaban Odhoji in their ranks, arrived in Nairobi on Wednesday afternoon.

“The team was in Nairobi at 15h00 local time (14h00) Zambia time but spent two hours to get to the hotel owing to heavy traffic,” the club posted in a statement on social media.

And Egyptian coach Mohamed Fathi later suggested in an interview the Kenyan contingent had deliberately shuttled the team through the heavy traffic from the airport via Mombasa road. He further indicated that Nairobi ‘is not an organised’ city.

“I talk about it when on an African safari (trip), some countries are organised, some countries are not. So if you start to think about the negative from the first time, at the airport, they took us to a busy road, traffic, I am not interested because when it comes to my mind it goes to the players mind. We are now only thinking about how to focus on the game.

The second leg of this match will be played in Lusaka on  February 21.

The entire Mombasa road stretch linking the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) and the CBD is currently a busy route with the construction of an Expressway. This has led to traffic snarl-up during the day.