Elections: Tough task awaits athletics legend at Olympic body’s helm

Five-time World cross Country champion set to be confirmed to head key  body today.

IAAF President Seb Coe with Kenya's Paul Tergat shortly before the press conference at Sharaton Hotel, Kampala ahead of IAAF world cross country championship schedulled for Sunday, March 26, 2017.[PHOTO:DENNIS OKEYO/STANDARD]

A new era starts at the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) who go for elections today.

Focus will no doubt be on athletics legend Paul Tergat who is un-opposed for the President's post.

Tergat has a full tray as he starts four years at the helmn of the country's Olympic movement.

Chief among Tergat's to do list is a clean up of NOCK's image which has over the years been tainted by various scandals.

The most recent scandal came after the Rio Olympic games when athletes complained of being mistreated by officials.

For that various NOCK officials have been arraigned in court to answer charges among them theft of uniforns and money meant for athletes.

To be sure some of these have been going on for many years but things boiled over this time around due to media scrutiny.

The Rio scandal remains the biggest stain on NOCK that Tergat has to clean up inorder to return the lost good will with another championships less than four years away.

The five time world cross country champion must also help to bring transparency in NOCK. For many years, the association has been run in a cartel like manner something that has only helped to foster impunity.

In the past, the officials could get away with anything and even the government could not touch them. It actually took the intervention of the International Olympic Committe (IOC) for the out-going officials to accept the change the constitutions.

Two previous attempts had failed after the officials ganged up to defeat the implementation of a document they had helped midwife and it had to take arm-twisting from IOC including freezing NOCK's accounts for the document to be passed.

Tergat must do everything possible to ensure that his administration lives out the tenets of the new constitution key among them the enacment of a two term limit.

Granted the out-going officials also did some positive things which must be made even better.

Here, the construction of a new NOCK headquarters in Upper Hill stands out. The building once completed will ensure that the association does not pay rent and also rents out some office space.

This will in turn make NOCK self-sustaining in the long run and they should be able to fund other associations.

In his campaign, Tergat has received a lot of support from various quarters and he cannot afford to squander this goodwill.

Tergat has assured that he will work with all the federations to ensure a complete change at NOCK.

"Unpaid allowances for our athletes will be a thing of the past. I promise to consult with everyone involved," he said.