Women were not invited to play volleyball at the
All-Africa Games until 1978. Those games were in
Algiers, Algeria and Kenya did not send a team. The team was there in 1991 for the
Volleyball at the 1991 All-Africa Games where they were first. They were also in Cairo when eight teams were present for the
1991 Women's African Volleyball Championship and Kenya again took the gold medal.
Violet Barasa, as national team captain, lead the national team to its appearances at the
2000 Summer Olympics and the
2004 Summer Olympics. At both events they finished eleventh. In 2007 their coach Sammy Kirongo led them to a seventh
Women's African Volleyball Championship victory. That year's championships was in Nairobi and the final was against Algeria. The Kenyan team included
Brackcides Agala,
Janet Wanja,
Dorcas Ndasaba and
Catherine Wanjiru. Mildred Odwako was said to be the "best digger" and Janet Wanja was the "best setter". Dorcas Ndasaba was judged "best player" after she gained the final point to deliver victory in straight sets. In 2008 they failed to qualify for the
2008 Summer Olympics after they were beaten by Algeria and four years later Algeria again denied them qualification for the
2012 Summer Olympics in London. In 2015
Brackcides Agala was the captain of the team and
Janet Wanja assisted her. The team announced that they refused to play for the
2015 FIVB World Grand Prix in Canberra after several victories. The players were annoyed that they had not been paid money that had been promised by the Kenya Volleyball Federation. The boycott was successful and the team played and won against Peru. However, the KVF were not pleased and when the team's were announced for the
2016 Summer Olympics neither Khadambi or her assistant
Janet Wanja were asked to the qualifying matches and the team failed to qualify. and they qualified for the postponed
2020 Summer Olympics which was the first time in sixteen years. The
chosen players names were revealed on 26 June 2021. The Olympic team included the veteran
Mercy Moim as captain and
Jane Wacu also made the team, but former players
Violet Makuto and
Elizabeth Wanyama were not included. Kenya's "Most Valued Player"
Brackcides Agala was included in the beach volleyball team. The team's captain
Mercy Moim was chosen to be one of Kenya's flagbearers at the Olympics opening ceremony (Moim was the second woman to be given this honour following archer
Shazad Anwar in 2016). Their opening match was on 25 July in Tokyo against
Japan. Surprisingly Paul Bitok was not on the match's touchline, but Brazilian coach was announced as the head coach. He spoke to the press via the team manager. The team lost their first match against Japan in straight sets. ==Results==