Hope as CS Amina appoints Cricket Kenya Normalisation Committee

Cabinet Secretary Sports Culture and Heritage Amina Mohamed address members of the press on 16 March 2021 at National Library Kenya upper Hill in Nairobi, Amina appoints crickets Kenya Normalisation committee. [Edward Kiplimo, Standard]

Cabinet Secretary for Sports CS Amina Mohamed has appointed a five-member team to head the Cricket Kenya Normalisation Committee whose key task is to ensure the smooth running of Cricket Kenya’s operations until the federation's elections are conducted in July.

In a press statement seen by the Standard Sports on Tuesday, Amina appointed retired judge Joyce Aluoch to head a Cricket Kenya caretaker team.

Justice Aluoch will be deputised by another retired judge, Alnashir Visram in a team comprising of Jane Muigai-Kampuis, Morris Aluanga and Walter Ongeti,

Other members in the Secretariat of the Committee include Jaxon Indakwa, Rizpha Mukonyo, Mercy Oiro and Caroline Kariuki.

Amina said the Committee is mandated to ensure the smooth running of Cricket Kenya’s operations including team preparations for local and international events and facilitate the elections of new officials as per the validated Constitution.

The committee is also tasked with facilitating the elections of new officials as per the validated Constitution and hand over Cricket Kenya to newly elected officials after a successful election.

They are also to recommend to the Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Heritage long-lasting solutions to the problems facing Cricket Kenya.

Kenya has a long history of great performance in cricket. The sport brought great pride to the country in the late 1990’s and subsequent years when Kenya ranked among the best countries in cricket globally.

Kenya joined the International Cricket Council (ICC) in its own right in 1981 as an Associate Member. At the 1994 ICC Trophy, Kenya was placed second qualifying for the 1996 ICC Cricket World Cup. Kenya beat West-Indies to claim a 73-run triumph, the greatest performance in Kenya’s cricket history.

2008 Highest African scorer Sarah Bakita training at Ruaraka Sports club in Nairobi on Tuesday, April 14, 2020. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

This winning tradition continued until 2003 with recorded wins against Canada, Sri-Lanka, Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. In 2007, Kenya participated in the Cricket World Cup amid looming governance problems.

By 2010, governance gaps within Cricket Kenya started affecting the growth of the Sport and subsequently, Kenya’s overall international performance.

In July 2018, ICC issued a Suspension Notice to Kenya following glaring governance lapses within Cricket Kenya and non-compliance with ICC Membership criteria.

Following the issuance of the Suspension Notice, I travelled to the ICC Headquarters in London in 2019 for a meeting with the ICC President to resolve the highlighted issues of noncompliance. It was agreed that Kenya would be allowed six (6) months to resolve the identified problems.

Thereafter, I instructed the Registrar of Sports to issue guidelines to Cricket Kenya to streamline its operations to the Kenyan Constitution, the Sports Act, 2013 and the ICC Constitution/Rules and Regulations.

Internal disagreements within Cricket Kenya culminating in Court proceedings hampered the implementation of the Guidelines provided by the Registrar and the Orders emanating from High Court Consent Order dated 22nd May 2019 prompting the ICC to issue another Suspension Notice in December 2020.

It should be noted that as a result of the non-compliance, Cricket Kenya has forfeited a total of $1.3 million in ICC Grants in 2019 and 2020 and caused the ICC to withhold a further $250,000 worth of grants in 2020. This unfortunate leadership crisis within Cricket Kenya risks having Kenya expelled from the ICC Membership and losing any right to participate in future ICC events including the 2022 Commonwealth Games Qualifiers.

“I expect the committee to coordinate the finalization of the Draft Constitution and ensure its validation in line with the requirements of the Sports Act 2013 and the ICC Statutes and also coordinate and facilitate the compliance of Cricket Kenya to the ICC requirements,” Amina said in the statement.

The Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage, Cricket Kenya and ICC shall facilitate the operations of the Normalisation Committee.