The Africa Men’s Volleyball Championship will serve off today at the Kigali Arena in Rwanda.

A total of 17 teams have confirmed participation with Kenya joining fellow East Africans Uganda, Tanzania, Ethiopia, Burundi, South Sudan and hosts Rwanda.

Others are Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Morocco, Cameroon, Egypt, Tunisia, Burkina Faso, Niger and Mali.

At the conclusion of the 10-day event, the top two teams will qualify for next year’s world championships.

The national men’s volleyball team, Wafalme, touched down in Kigali on Sunday afternoon confident they will finally put an end to their misery at the continental volleyball.

Head coach Gideon Tarus believes he has enough quality in his Kenyan side to stage a good fight against any team adding he simply needs a few tweaks to get Wafalme fired up.

“We can be where our women’s team has reached and the federation has now seen the importance of improving the standards of the men’s team.

I believe I’ve the best arsenal to fight for this year’s title and we will also make Kenyans proud just like the Malkia Strikers,” Tarus told People Sport after landing at the Kigali International Airport in Rwanda’s capital.

Upon landing, the 14-member squad plus six officials underwent mandatory Covid-19 tests and they stayed in a hotel under quarantine until Monday afternoon when they started training but other movements were highly restricted.

Kenya skipped the 2019 edition of the biennial premier championship held in Tunisia and they finished ninth in the 2017’s event hosted in Egypt’s capital Cairo.

 Unlike the women’s team Malkia Strikers who have made a huge progress in the continent, winning a record nine African titles Wafalme’s best performance in a continental scene was in 2011 when they finished third during the All African Games held in Mozambique.

Tunisia are the defending champions and they will be eyeing their 11th title in total at the championship.