New dawn at Kenya Rugby Union: Delegates disregard court order to elect new officials

Sasha Mutai elected KRU interim chairman

Sasha Mutai is the new interim chairman of the Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) after a motion of no confidence was passed against the newly appointed Gabriel Ouko led board.

Mutai was unanimously elected during yesterday's Special General Meeting at the RFUEA Grounds despite a court order issued by the Kisumu Chief Magistrate's court.

"That pending the hearing and determination of this application inter-parties, court has issued an injunction against the defendants from convening the Special General Meeting from the notice issued on February 10, 2015," read the injunction in part.

However, three Kenya Cup clubs and 27 Nationwide clubs ignored the order and went ahead to attend the SGM that saw Jack Okoth elected unopposed as the Secretary General with Gerald Chege deputising Mutai.

Joshua Aroni is the new treasurer while Ochieng Ohaya, Dan Kimaru, Benjamin Ayimba, Ken Munari and Patrick Mwangi came on board as directors.

Mutai said his first assignment will be to bring back sanity in the fastest growing sport in the country.

"I am humbled that sanity and justice has prevailed. The values of the game had been soiled, but it's now time to clear up the mess and re-brand. The court order was flawed. This is an interim body until 2016," said Mutai.

The meeting, which was chaired by Spartan's Nillis Achayo and overseen by Kenya Sports Council officials Chairman Nderitu Gikaria and Treasurer Charles Nyaberi, also agreed to reinstate suspended Kakamega RFC.

"We've unanimously passed a motion of no confidence against the former board and elected a new interim office. Members have also agreed to reinstate Kakamega RFC back into the rugby fixtures," said Achayo.

"We followed the KRU constitution and I think there's no legal implication because members want to run the game on the pitch and not courts," he added.

Commenting on the new development, Sports Council Treasurer Charles Nyaberi said nobody had served them with the injunction.

"Nobody had served us with any court order. All the same, what we've seen here is defective and has many omissions," he said.

Clubs that attended SGM were Mwamba, Egerton University, KCA, Nazarene, Multimedia, Daystar, Catholic, Technical University, Siaya MTC, Moi University, Eldoret, Spartans, Shepherds, Mombasa, Kisumu, Kakamega, Mbale, MMust, Maseno University, Kemu, Kisii, Stormers, Oryx, JKUAT, Blak Blad, Strathmore, Mean Machine and Thika.