Three Kenya national men's volleyball team players banned for two years.

The three, Bernard Otieno, Michael Njoroge and Faustine Barasa, were given marching orders for what Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) and their club Co-operative Bank, termed as “gross misconduct.”

In a letter to the three players, KVF said they decided to suspend them following allegations of misconduct in their last year’s league match against General Service Unit in Kapsabet.

“This is to communicate formally a decision of the KVF-NEC, which at its meeting of Saturday, 21 November 2015 decided to suspend you from all volleyball activities over allegations that you were involved in indiscipline matters that led to abrupt end of the game in Kapsabet,” acting KVF Secretary General Ben Juma wrote.

“This dented the image of this sport, which is contrary to the laid down procedures as stipulated in the KVF sports regulation rule book.”

“Arising from this incident, the NEC decided to suspend you from all volleyball activities for a period of two years.”

“You are, however, free to appeal within 14 days from the date of receipt of this letter. Failure to appeal within 14 days will be assumed that you do not wish give any explanation and therefore, the decision will stand.”

Already, the three have appealed the decision with Njoroge, who is also the Nairobi Branch Secretary General, terming the ban as “unfair and malicious”.

“This is a very malicious suspension because the letter does not no mention the misconduct we are being accused of. But we will fight to the bitter end to ensure the decision is reversed. We were informally called for a hearing last Friday, but nobody told us which rules we broke. As we speak, I have not received any official suspension letter from the club,” Njoroge said.

Njoroge said the federation is trying to intimidate outspoken players and team managers, who criticize them. "They are trying to silence me because of my positive criticism on social media. I and other like-minded Kenyans have been fighting for freedom and fairness in the running of volleyball."

“Referring to your letter addressed to me dated 25/01/2016 on the above issue, I do not agree with the reasons stated on me (sic). I was playing the captain’s role on the field and the rules of volleyball allow the playing captain to raise any problem to the referee. The match had no problem until it started to rain. I went to the referee and informed him that the playing surface was wet and slippery, which might cause injuries,” Otieno wrote in his appeal.

“The allegations that I was involved in indiscipline matters was not true. The match was stopped and replayed the following day without the said allegations,’’ Barasa wrote in his appeal.

And before the appeal was determined by the federation, their club, Co-operative Bank, also suspended the trio.

“I don’t know the origin of that suspension letter, which is circulating on social media. But it is true we have indefinitely suspended the three players pending hearing from KVF. It is unfortunate that we had to take such a decision, but as a bank, we must have a stand,” team manager James Wanjohi said.