International Association of Athletes Federation Nairobi Regional Director Ibrahim Hussein Kipkemboi has called on the National Olympic Committee of Kenya officials to vacate office owing to their poor handling of Team Kenya to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Hussein, the first black man to win the New York Marathon and overall captain of the Kenya team to the 1988 Seoul Olympic Games said the mess at Nock is not news. The former multiple Boston and Honolulu marathon winner who also represented Kenya at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona claimed NOCK mess up everything they organise be it Olympics, Commonwealth or Pan-African Games.
“The best thing they can do is leave and pave way for younger, motivated officials to run the office,” said Hussein.
“It is not the first time we are having these mismanagement issues at Nock. They always have four years to organise Olympics, they never get it right. One wonders how many they want, eight, maybe? This was the first time I was travelling to the Olympics as an official and I was disappointed,” he said.
“I am fearing that, with their conduct, some of these officials are going to destroy the legacy of Kipchoge Keino,” said Hussein.
In addition, he said, it is time big sporting federations were represented at Nock. Currently, the leadership at Nock is composed of officials from the so called small federations including Judo, handball, pentathlon, swimming, weight-lifting and others are from taekwondo.
“In Rio, I was made to believe I had accreditation only that the validation was to be done by Nock officials,” said Hussein, who could not access the Olympic village in Rio.
“I tried calling these officials and none of them picked my calls. It’s so unfortunate that this had to happen. They have been treating the Nock as personal property and it is time this came to an end.”
Hussein observed that the disorganisation could have affected the country’s medal haul.
“I feel that if we were better organised, we would have won more medals in addition to the six gold, six silver and one bronze we managed,” he observed.
Hussein’s sentiments were echoed by Olympic silver and world javelin winner Julius Yego who bemoaned the disorganisation from Nock.
Yego tasted the poor management first hand when he showed up at the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport for the Rio Jadeniro flight via Luanda, Angola.
“The travel arrangements were such a disappointment. I could not get a ticket. Somebody had changed it but we couldn’t find out who. Maybe because of the noise I made after I was told I would not go with my coach (Joseph Mosonik),” said Yego. “It took the intervention of Kenya Airways who gave me a boarding pass in Nairobi and followed up to ensure I got another in the connecting flight from Angola to Rio.”
“Some of the athletes are still in Rio, days after they finished their competition. What are they doing there? Why couldn’t they have flights as soon as they were done,” added Yego, who alongside some of the seasoned athletes, made their own travel arrangements to fly home from Brazil.
“We want somebody who has interest and is conversant with athletes’ needs at Nock. I am happy with what the government is doing and especially President Uhuru Kenyatta, who has talked about the mess and we hope things will improve.”