NOCK SET FOR MAJOR CHANGES

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Several radical changes have been proposed to the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) constitution.

The proposed changes have been sent to all Nock affiliates who have until October 17 to give their input on the constitution that proposes to radically change how the association is run.

This comes in the wake of the Rio Olympics games scandal where a number of Nock officials were arrested and have since been arraigned in court over the mismanagement of Team Kenya.

Among the radical changes proposed is the barring of Nock executive committee members from voting.

Article 20.1.1 outlines who votes at the general assembly as: National federations, IOC members, women and athletes representatives. The next article, specifically bars Nock executive and honorary members from voting.

Another radical change is that no member of the executive committee shall be allowed to hold the same position for more than two consecutive terms.If the proposed changes are passed, a majority of the current officials will not be eligible to contest when elections are held in December especially if the polls are held under the law.

This is also in line with the Sports Act which bars officials from holding positions for more than two terms. The new constitution also bars employees of the Ministry of Sports from contesting for positions in Nock.

Former Commissioner of Sports Gordon Oluoch had contested in the last elections only for him to withdraw at the last minute. Oluoch is the current Acting Director General of Sports Kenya.

The changes further propose that during elections, the winner will be decided by a simple majority vote.

“In the event of a tie, there shall be a run-off between the two candidates with the highest number of votes,” says part of the draft. Currently, the Nock chairman had a casting vote to decide the winner of a position where two candidates have tied.

Furthermore, anyone wishing to contest for a position in the executive committee must be nominated by their own federation and seconded by one other affiliate federation. The federation must be from an Olympic sport.

At the moment there are some members of Nock executive committee who are not from any federation and this new rule will automatically weed them out.

The draft also proposes that those wishing to contest shall send their request to an independent electoral board. The board must be set-up at least one month before elections are conducted.

The proposals were put forward by a Nock constitution review committee that is chaired by Ben Ekumbo.

Contacted Nock Secretary General F K Paul said he was not aware of the changes proposed by the committee, but confirmed that federations have until October 17 to propose changes to the constitution.

“We are aware of what the committee is doing, but we did not give them permission to make the draft public.”