Airline booking glitch leaves 73 chess players stranded

• The students were to depart from Nairobi on Saturday morning to Kuala Lumpur for the Commonwealth Schools Chess Championship.
• But the booking hitch upended those plans, throwing the students, their parents and the organisers into a scramble for alternative flights.

Moments before a local travel agency could complete payment for a group of about 113 students travelling to Malaysia on Saturday to represent Kenya in an international chess competition, the booking portal of the airline closed in on them.

The result was chaotic scenes at the airport. Photos of stranded parents and students at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) were soon all over social media, giving a glimpse of the confusion and anxiety that had gripped the group.

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