Pressure mounts on AK president to call SGM

By ERICK OCHIENG’

Pressure continues to pile on the embattled Athletics Kenya President Isaiah Kiplagat to call for a Special General Meeting (SGM).

The move comes against a decision by Kiplagat calling members for a retreat in Naivasha on September 19, 2013.

AK chairman Nyanza South Peter Angwenyi dismissed the Naivasha retreat move terming it as “a side show used to squander money otherwise meant for athletics development.”

Angwenyi, who lost the Public Relations Officer (PRO) post by one vote, questioned: “Why should money be spent on the retreat when AK affiliates have not been given their 2013 administration grants?

“We fully support the affiliate’s decision for an SGM.”

Angwenyi, a two-time PRO at Riadha House, went on: “Kiplagat’s exit is an idea whose time has come. No kind of retreat can stop it. I want to appeal to the President to read the signs of the times and leave the house to avoid the iminent wave against him.”

Speaking on phone yesterday from Nairobi, Angwenyi questioned the authenticity of the Naivasha retreat, saying Kiplagat has not yet implemented the resolutions made in the 1999 Lake Nakuru Lodge Retreat cum Symposium.

Angwenyi was flanked by Kenneth Boro (Nyanza South sSecretary), Nicholas Maswai (Prisons Secretary), Stephen Ole Marai (South Rift Treasurer), Thomas Ongwacho (Nyanza North Secretary) and Joshua Chelang’at (North Baringo Treasurer).

On his part, Boro said no amount of threats will stop the affiliates from attending the SGM.

“There are lots of grievances that need to be addressed and we cannot handle them at a retreat.,” he said.

Chelang’at, the 2007 Rotterdam Marathon winner, wondered why Kiplagat handpicked Sydney Olympic champion Noah Ng’eny to the Athlete Representative post, which is an elective position.

“We do not recognise Ng’eny as our representative and if Kiplagat continues to lead this way, then we will stage a revolution. The Naivasha retreat is simply a conduit for members to be compromised,” he said.

Maswai said Kiplagat has failed to recognise the disciplined forces by suspending their grants yet they earn AK money through brilliant wins by their athletes.

“We have instructed our chairmen. If Kiplagat wants to save his image, he should hand over honourably before we stage a revolution,” said Maswai. Ole Marai, a former world 800m runner, threatened that a vote of no confidence awaits Kiplagat.