New Dawn in the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) elections, led by first vice president and presidential hopeful Shadrack Maluki, wants the umbrella body’s executive disbanded, save for president Paul Tergat.
They believe a disbandment, coupled with a takeover of activities by the secretariat, will help forge a way forward in the impasse.
The Nock elections, initially set for April 24, have been aborted twice after disputes regarding who to cast the vote in at least four federations.
A second attempt on June 26 also fell through after the High Court issued a temporary injunction, halting the polls over a petition challenging the eligibility of some candidates.
Team New Dawn has Maluki (president-judo), Barnaba Korir (first vice president-athletics), Nahashon Randiek (second vice president-hockey), Andrew Mudibo (secretary general-table tennis), Francis Karugu (assistant secretary general-softball), Fred Chege (treasurer-fencing), Charles Mose (assistant treasurer-cycling), Waweru Mududa (women representative-volleyball) and committee members Sasha Mutai (rugby), Jocyline Nyambura (triathlon), Suleiman Sumba (taekwondo), Eliud Kipchoge (athlete representative-athletics) and Grace Adhiambo (athlete representative-rugby).
In a letter addressed to the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) and the International Olympic Committee (IOC), and copied to the Sports Cabinet Secretary, Maluki’s team said; “The entire NOC-K office should all step down from office, apart from the NOC-K president and IOC representative Paul Tergat.”
“NOC-K has a working secretariat, and its activities will not stop. That is why federations, in 2017, pushed to have employed staff who are not part of such a current crisis.”
They also want a new body to take over the electoral process from the IEBC, recommending the Law Society of Kenya (LSK).
“As federations, we have lost confidence in IEBC conducting the NOCK elections. They have clearly stated their role is to count votes only, a role that can be done by anyone. What we wanted was an independent referee and not a vote-counting institution.”
Maluki’s camp also raised concerns about alleged voter list manipulation, pointing to glaring inconsistencies.
"On April 16, IEBC released a list of candidates and delegates through the NOCK Secretariat. On June 12, outgoing Secretary General and also an aspirant for the NOCK president’s position, Francis Mutuku, circulated another list, which had changes of voters and delegates, a list that had not been circulated by IEBC.”
“On the eve of the elections, on June 18, Mutuku circulated to the NOCK executive committee members, after being pushed, again another list of delegates and people who will be allowed to be part of the adjourned NOCK congress.”
“IEBC was appointed by the General Assembly to conduct the elections but so far, as witnessed, the actions of the returning officer of the elections, cannot be held transparently and fairly and that is why, we wish to call upon LSK, to accept to conduct the remaining process of the elections.”
“Our wish was for IEBC to handle the entire process, and they have failed. We believe, LSK being a professional body at this point, will be able to handle the process transparently and with dedication.”
The team called for the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) to investigate issues in and around the NOCK electoral process.
“EACC and DCI (Department of Criminal Investigations) should move in and investigate the issues around the NOCK elections, which just don’t touch on the election process alone, but also the suspect documentation of Chapter 6 requirements. Some candidates are being allowed to hold office in federations and to seek positions within the Olympic Committee, yet they have submitted documents that are forged,” they alleged.
