NAIROBI, Kenya, February 18 – Acting Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) boss Gabriel Ouko is keen for dialogue with the group led by Sasha Mutai who was voted in as interim chair at a Special General Meeting last week to quash the leadership crisis in the organisation.
Ouko who accompanied the national 7s team to New Zealand and USA however, maintained arbitration is not the way forward to end the tussle since he has served notice of an Annual General Meeting (AGM) on March 17.
“We will sort out our problems within the next couple of weeks. We don’t want negativity and the squabbles that you are hearing; it’s something that I’m sure we will resolve very soon.
“All issues that were raised by the guys who wanted the SGM can be raised in the AGM so we are open to criticism, and the public is out there to judge us. I don’t think we need to go to the tribunal, it would be the last resort if we don’t agree,” Ouko said.
He expressed delight at the sevens team’s performances since taking over in interim capacity after Mwangi Muthee resigned from the chair mid December.
On Tuesday, Principal Secretary in the Sports Ministry, Jasper Rugut, was appointed to lead the arbitration process ahead of the AGM following a meeting of representatives of both groups at Cabinet Secretary, Dr. Hassan Wario’s office.
This came hours after the High Court ordered the Register of Sports not to recognise the new officials.
High Court judge Justice Alfred Mabeya barred the Mutai team from taking over, pending the March 2 hearing of a case filed by KRU lawyer Michael Muchemi.
The judge, who certified the case as urgent, directed Muchemi to serve all 11 officials elected at the SGM.
Other officials that were elected are Gerald Chege as vice chairman, Jack Okoth as Secretary General while Joshua Aromi was elected the treasurer.
Directors are Kennedy Monari, Patrick Mwangi, Daniel Kimoro, Ochieng Ohaya and Doris Mwanzia.
“We would like to have a discussion and we are ready because some of them are people we have worked together before and don’t see why we can’t seat on a round table and agree,” Ouko added.
The Mutai led faction was demanding the board to be disbanded, accusing them of financial impropriety especially at last year’s Bamburi Rugby Super Series and Safaricom Sevens but Ouko declared that the Simpson Osiemo committee’s report probing the scandal will be made public.
Osiemo, who chaired the seven-member committee that was tasked to investigate the allegations of misappropriation of funds in the local governing body alongside the auditors, is expected to submit the report on Friday.
“People who are complaining of misappropriation of funds were all seated in the board last year so nobody can run away from the fact that they were all part that process, the issues that needed to be addressed was dealt with like bringing on professionals to run our secretariat which was the biggest issue.
“There are those who doubted when we said that the team will be getting better and I think they have gotten the answer from the two legs. We have created the right environment for the team to play,” the acting chairman added.
