NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 15 – Candidates vying for posts in the forthcoming National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) elections have accused the Executive of interference.
The candidates led by the Kenya Table Tennis Association (KTTA) chairman Andrew Mudibo, who is eyeing NOCK’s Secretary General’s post accused the Executive of using the powers of the elections in poll’s independent electoral body Centre for Multiparty Democracy (CMD).
“It is sad and unacceptable that the NOCK Executive has taken over the roles of the independent electoral body CMD by delegating and giving it orders,” they said.
The candidates said there is a conflict of interest as some of the Executive Members are interested parties since they are also participating in the polls as candidates.
“How can a player in a completion assume the roles of a referee in the same contest? They posed.
Addressing a press conference, the protesting candidates included, Mudibo, Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) vice chairperson veteran journalist Elyna Shiveka eyeing treasurer’s post, Kenya Judo Association (KJA) chairman Shadrack Maluki gunning for the vice presidency.
Others were Kenya Sports Shooting and Rifle Federation General Secretary Mohammed Shoiab going for a committee member position and Kenya Swimming Transitional Authority Committee (TAC) official Roselyne Njeri contesting for the Women’s representative seat.
“The IOC letter dated14th September, 2017, is very clear on how important the independence of the electoral process has to run and also how any matter that they cannot resolve is to be handled by the General Assembly,” they said.
They complained of the unilateral and unconstitutional decision made by the NOCK Executive by drawing a list of delegates which does not have the blessings of the respective federations.
“In the list that NOCK forwarded to federations, they have changed some names of delegates from the previous one which the CMD had before the May elections aborted,” they lamented.
They wondered why the NOCK executive has gone ahead to hand pick federation officials which was preserve of the respective federations in accordance with NOCK constitution in selecting those to attend the meeting.
They stated: “Clause 14.6 of the new NOCK Constitution says, it shall be mandatory in all cases for relevant federation, association or body referred to Rule 13.1 hereof to declare in writing and inform the Secretary General of the Committee in advance of the meeting, the names of two delegates, noting to specify the voting delegate.”
The aspirants claimed executive has gone against a resolution during their extraordinary meeting held on September 14, where they resolved that federations having factions or issues in court must have resolved them before September 29th or otherwise will not be allowed to participate in the polls.
“If this was the case you would not have expected to have seen those names of officials of the federation’s warring factions on the delegates list released by NOCK. Why try and force a to the members assembly,” they lamented.
The candidates were flanked by the immediate former NOCK vice chairman Pius Ochieng’ who is the Kenya Weightlifting Federation (KWF) chief, Kenya Badminton Federation (KBF) chairman Peter Muchiri , Kenya Swimming Transitional Authority Committee (TAC) chair Conrad Thorpe and Kenya Rowing and Canoeing Federation official James Mweu.
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