NAIROBI, Kenya, SEPTEMBER 6 – Ian Mugambi is the new secretary of Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) after clinching a tightly-contested poll on Tuesday night at the RFUEA grounds in Nairobi.
Mugambi garnered 18 votes to edge out his closest challenger, Raymond Olendo, who collected 13 votes.
After his victory, Mugambi urged all stakeholders of the game to work together in driving rugby to the next level.
“I think from what we have seen today, there is a lot of work for us to do. The elections may be done but we should apply the same vigour to making our constitution compliant with the Sports Act as well as to make our clubs compliant. We now have to start working and move together to keep up the spirit of rugby,” he said.
Also heading home all smiles was Moses Ndale who was elected vice-chairperson after garnering 20 votes against the 11 bagged by Peris Mukoko.
In his victory speech, Ndale promised to be a servant leader and work closely with everyone to grow the sport at all levels.
“I assure you I will work with the chair to take rugby to the next level. I look forward to talking to each other so that we may understand how to improve this game. My phone will always remain open…it will never go off now that am next to the big man here (KRU chair Oduor Gangla),” he said.
Meanwhile, Oscar Mango and Leslie Mwangale are the two new Directors on KRU’s Board after emerging the best two out of the four who were vying for the same positions.
Mango got 23 votes as Mwangale garnered 16 votes in second, Hillary Itela and Charles Chege finished third and fourth after collecting 15 and six votes respectively.
Joshua Aroni retained his treasurer seat unopposed.
-Risk of elections aborting-
However, it was not all smooth sailing as the elections were at risk of aborting at one point due to a contention on whether to allow county associations vote or not.
Whereas KRU’s constitution does not make provision for this, Sports Registrar Rose Wasike insisted that preventing the newly-formed county associations from voting would be a violation of the Sports Act.
After much deliberations, however, delegates decided to allow the county associations to vote, alongside the 24 affiliate clubs that have thus far complied with the Sports Act.
KRU chairman Oduor Gangla said the next, urgent step after the polls is to amend the Union’s constitution in line with the law.
“I am pleased that we were able to hold our elections today and run our business. It was a tough meeting because of a lot of legal issues but with the guidance of the Sports Registrar and the rugby fraternity we were able to come up with a solution that complies with the legal obligations and so we shouldn’t have any problems with registration,” Gangla said.
He added: “The members came up with a task force to ensure compliance with the Sports Act. They will have to look at our constitution and the act as well and if there are any gaps, to fill them. I don’t think there are that many gaps.”
