No date yet for Nock elections

Kenyans will have to wait a little bit longer to know the date for the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) elections after the executive committee failed to agree on a new date following a second consultative meeting held Friday at Nock’s offices in Nairobi.

On Thursday after the first meeting involving the committee’s top brass, 23 affiliate federations and the Minister of sports Dr Hassan Wario, Nock president Dr. Kipchoge Keino promised a date for the polls would be revealed Friday when the executive committee convened.

In an exclusive interview with Citizen Digital after Friday’s deliberations at Nock’s headquarters, Secretary General Francis Kinyili Paul said they could not set the date until the Kenya Taekwondo Federation withdraws a case at the High court that halted the elections which were meant to bring sweeping changes to the executive committee that has been dogged by mismanagement and perennials internal squabbles.

The martial arts association purportedly backed by some members of the outgoing Executive Committee moved to court in May after the Centre for Multiparty Democracy-Kenya (CMD-K), tasked with overseeing the elections, barred them alongside the Kenya Cycling Federation and the Kenya Rowing Federation from participating in the elections.

According to Kinyili, diplomacy is the new approach Nock will adopt to convince George Wasonga, a Taekwondo official who sought the injunction to persuade him to withdraw the case.

“Wesonga is jetting back on Sunday. We hope he will be easy to convince him to withdraw the case because it is an urgent matter.

“Latest, the matter in court should be sorted by July 4th,” a concerned Kinyili said.

The decision seems to be a reaction to the June 21st letter from the IOC to Nock that explicitly berated the executive committee and subsequently upheld a funds freeze crippling her operations.

Consensus is paramount between the federations in order to display some semblance of unity in the fractured committee ahead of the IOC’S executive committee meeting on July 9 and 10 where Kenya will be on the agenda.

“Once the case is withdrawn we shall call the federations and associations again and conclusively agree on the date on the election.

“This should form the basis of our contact with IOC before their executive meeting,” he added.

Kinyili revealed that the four federations – Kenya Taekwondo Association, Kenya Badminton Association, Kenya Swimming Federation and Kenya Cycling Federation – that had not been cleared to participate in the elections on grounds of compliance with the 2015 Sports Act are on the verge of clearance after yesterday’s discussion with the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Sports Ambassador Kirimi Kaberia.

Kenya is currently in the IOC’s crosshairs and the failure to resolve the current issue could attract the wrath of the global body.

Report by Gilbert Kiprotich

Tags:

elections IOC NOCK federations court Paul affiliate Dr. Kipchoge Keino Kinyili Taekwando

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