Another sports scandal brewing? High number of officials set for World Championships raises queries

Geoffrey Kamworor leads the men's 10,000m final during the National Olympics Trials on July 1,2016 at kipchoge Stadium, Eldoret.[PHOTO:DENNIS OKEYO/STANDARD]

AK line up 47 officials to travel to London for global event.

It’s almost one year now. But its scandal that came to be known as ‘Rio Fiasco’ is not about to fade away.

And even before the dust settles on the series of problems Kenyan athletes faced at the Rio Olympics, another scandal seems to be brewing ahead of the 16th IAAF World Athletics Championships scheduled for London from August 4 to 12.

It’s simply a re-match in London after the 2012 Olympics, where questions of joy riders were raised.

The Standard Sports have established that an additional 10 officials —mostly senior athletics officials from the disciplined forces and Ministry of Sports — are lined up to travel to London, raising questions on their roles during the nine-day event.

That would see the officials almost outnumbering the athletes.

It means these officials would force the taxpayer to dig deeper into their pockets to psay their allowances.

The ‘joyriders’ will return home Sh90,000 richer in international allowances, part of which accommodation which is expected to be catered for by the Government.

“It’s sad our athletes receive Sh800 a day and $900 as international allowance when people without clear roles in London are accredited as officials. We should protest against this,” said an official in the team who requested anonymity.

A letter in our possession signed by AK Acting CEO Susan Kamau and addressed to British High Commission consular section requested visas for 104 officials and athletes.

However AK claims event organisers will meet expenses. “In this regard therefore that we are writing to kindly request you to issue them with visas from 10.07.2017 to enable them travel and participate in the event. The race organisers will meet the expenses,” read the AK letter.

But IAAF gives every member federation a quota which has a ratio of at least one official for six athletes.

“As per our quota, less than 10 officials will cater for our 57 athletes. For the rest, the Government will meet their expenses,” said Moses Tanui, the 1991 world 10,000m champion.

“I am requesting President Uhuru Kenyatta to act on it. We should not wait for the mess for us to act as has been the trend,” he said.

Kimutai Kosgei, former Amsterdam Marathon, said the money would be used to help athletes.

At least Sh20m will be spent on at least 50 officials, who are out of the national team quota, to meet air tickets, accommodation and international allowances if they all travel.