Kenya Volleyball Federation President Charles Nyaberi .
Besides entrenching themselves to key positions in leadership for many years, most Kenyan sports federations officials have shamelessly usurped their respective national teams’ duties.
That trend has continued unabated over the years, with officials taking advantage of the situation to award themselves positions that ensure they travel with national teams abroad, earning hefty allowances in the process.
The Sports Act of 2013 does not fully address the issue.
These conflicting duties have led to unending wrangles and court battles that have in the end hindered effective oversight, accountability, and overall performance and integrity in Kenyan sports.
Though acting late in the day, the government has now ordered officials of local sports federations, who are doubling up as technical officials in their respective national teams, to relinquish their posts immediately.
Cabinet Secretary for Youth Affairs, Creative Economy and Sports, Ababu Namwamba, has revealed that he received numerous complaints about management and governance challenges in several sports organisations, especially the division of roles.
The CS noted that the overlap has led to conflicting duties that have ruined the progress of sports in the country.
Technical role
“Effective immediately, officials of national sports organisations holding multiple positions are required either to relinquish their administrative or technical role," said Namwamba.
“This directive aims to ensure a clear separation of duties, thereby enhancing governance and operations efficiency within our national sports federations.”
"We trust you shall be guided accordingly and take the necessary steps to comply with the directive," Namwamba added.
National Boxing Team Hit Squad coach Musa Benjamin.
Namwamba’s directive comes in the wake of an uproar in the volleyball fraternity after top officials of Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) assigned themselves roles at the national women’s volleyball team, Malkia Strikers, that is preparing for the July 26 to August 11 Olympic Games which will be held in Paris.
The Boxing Federation of Kenya (BFK) has been the most notorious with top officials, who have assigned themselves national team duties, muzzling voices of reason. They double up as coaches for both men's and women’s boxing teams with impunity.
For them, the law of makers and checkers for accountability purposes doesn’t exist.
The standards of boxing have over the years spiralled down, with the said officials taking advantage of International Boxing Association’s failure to address the issue.
During an executive meeting on May 12, this year, KVF President Charles Nyaberi was appointed the team manager for the Malkia Strikers. Nyaberi’s deputy, Paul Bitok, who is a former head coach, returned as an assistant to head coach Japheth Munala.
After a huge public outcry, Bitok relinquished his position as Lilian Mududa, who had served as Malkia Strikers team manager, successfully challenged the appointments at the Sports Dispute Tribunal (SDT).
SDT revoked Nyaberi’s appointment as team manager of Malkia Strikers a week ago, with the chairman of the panel, Allan Mola, ruling that Mududa had been unfairly removed and denied the opportunity to continue serving in her position.
Mola ruled that Mududa, who has been duly appointed and selected as team manageress, will continue in her role for other pre-Olympic competitions, including the Fédération Internationale de Volleyball (FIVB) Volleyball Challenger Cup that will be played from July 4 to 7 in Manila, Philippines.
Nyaberi was elected as KVF President in August last year, replacing the late Waithaka Kioni, who died in April the same year.
But more would follow.
Even as Mududa reclaimed her place in the team, for the first time, KVF sponsored its Secretary-General, Ismail Chege, to travel as the team’s analyst to Manila, a role he had never played before in the team, further raising eyebrows.
The tendency by federation officials to take up roles as team officials is one of the major reasons why FIVB terminated Malkia Strikers’ Volleyball Empowerment Programme in April this year.
FIVB had seconded six coaches to Malkia Strikers, as part of Targeted Support, to improve performance and change the global perception of African women's volleyball on the global stage.
Through the Programme, FIVB had invested close to Sh88 million in Malkia Strikers, since its preparations for the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
Boxing Association of Kenya presidential aspirant Anthony "Jamal" Otieno.
Driven by selfish motives, KVF officials failed to sign the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to continue the partnership, leaving FIVB with no option but to end the deal.
KVF demanded equal representation on the team’s technical bench at the forthcoming Paris Olympic Games, and pushed for at least three local coaches to work alongside three Brazilian coaches.
Local coaches
FIVB, however, stood its ground, offering two positions for local coaches, a proposal that was rejected by KVF's National Executive Committee.
The termination of the partnership meant that Malkia Strikers' month-long camp in Finland could not take place.
Under the FIVB programme, Malkia Strikers registered good results at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Games, and at the 2022 World Championships as they went on to recapture the Africa title for the first time in eight years.
The team however recently lost both the Africa Zone Five and African Games titles to Egypt.
For the first time since the country gained independence 60 years ago, Kenya won’t have a boxer at the Olympic Games after the “Hit Squad” flopped both at the African qualifiers and two World Championships qualifiers.
BFK treasurer, Benjamin Musa, and Secretary General, David Munuhe, have served as head coach and deputy head coaches respectively since 2019. Fixtures Secretary, John Waweru, has also been the team's trainer.
The trio have served in the same capacity in men's and women's teams for the past five years Kenya flopped at the African Qualification tournament held last September in Dakar, Senegal, before also faltering at World Qualification Tournament 1 held in March this year in Busto Arsizio, Italy.
Their last shot was at the second World Qualification tournament in May in Bangkok, Thailand where only African Games champion Edwin Okong’o (middleweight) and Peter Abuti (heavyweight) reached the second round.
