New dawn beckons as National Olympic Committee of Kenya meets for key changes

Interim NOCK Committee officials Waithaka Kioni (left) and Andrew Mudibo during a press conference in Nairobi on Friday, Oct 21,, 2016. [PHOTO: JONAH ONYANGO/STANDARD]

Today is a truly historic day as the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) meets to amend its constitution, which will pave way for elections.

If the constitution is amended, as expected, Nock's executive committee members will lose their voting rights and begin their journey out of office.

Hours before the meeting, concerns have been raised about the manner in which the meeting was convened with some associations alleging sabotage.

A two-thirds majority is needed to pass the document as it is. In this case, 16 members must vote for the document to sail through. Only four members of the Nock Executive Committee and one each from the 19 associations, will be allowed to vote.

Kenya Hockey Union (KHU) chairman Nashon Randiek said in a statement that the association is not comfortable with how the notice for today’s meeting was issued.

“It is not in line with directives issued by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) last year, which was categorical that the meeting should have a specific agenda,” he said.

Randiek further expressed concern that contentious issues in the document have not been addressed.

“Since this is a negotiated document, it is only fair that issues of contention are deliberated before the constitution is tabled for adoption,” he added.

The Kenya Table Tennis Association (KTTA) also aired their fears.

“As federations affiliated to Nock, we have raised several objections in the past to IOC and have also drawn your attention to how Nock has time and again worked in complete ignorance with directives and agreements that have been reached in an effort to derail the constitution process.

“We are already aware of efforts being made by the current Nock Executive, who have been working tirelessly to see to it that the draft constitution is not adopted on February 28, 2017 by ensuring that the two-thirds majority vote required is not attained,” wrote KTTA chairman Andrew Mudibo to IOC.

But Nock chairman Kipchoge Keino said the executive will have only four of its members allowed to vote.

“Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario insisted that only four of our members should vote. I protested, but he stood his ground.”

By Ochieng Oyugi 19 mins ago
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