NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 14 – Kenya National Paralympic Committee president Agnes Oluoch remains optimistic they will hold their long-awaited national polls amid a court order barring Friday’s elections at Nyayo Stadium.
An order from the John Ohaga-chaired Sports Dispute Tribunal (SDT) halted the national elections until an application presented before it by the Kenya Sports Federation for the Mentally Handicapped and the Cerebral Palsy Sports Federation is heard and determined.
“We started the process of holding these elections almost six months ago as we had been told that we had to do them inside 90 days. However, the court order came last night (Thursday) and since we obey the court, we decided to postpone the elections. It is unfortunate because we were all ready to go…observers from the International Paralympic Committee and the African Paralympic Committee were already in the country,” she said.
Oluoch added: “We hope things will be well. All the parties are to appear before the tribunal on Tuesday and we hope to iron out the issues arising so we can have our elections.”
According to the claimants, the elections are an illegality due to the exclusion of the two aforementioned federations from the process.
However, Oluoch said KNPC have made a lot of efforts to embrace the federations within the confines of its new structure.
“The court order says that we have excluded the two federations but the truth is that KNPC is working under new structure that was evaluated and validated whereby the federation for the mentally handicapped does not come in as a member or a federation. However, for the Cerebral Palsy Sports Federation, we have included them under the wheelchair and amputee federation…the two will merge so that we can work together as members,” she explained.
Speaking at the same time, Kenya Sports Federation for the Mentally Handicapped secretary general Pauline Awange lauded SDT’s decision as justice served.
“We have been going to SDT for a long time but we never get justice. Today we are happy they have listened to us and allowed us to stop these elections. The polls that the chair has called for are illegal because it is only one federation involved, which in itself is not registered as per the requirements of the Sports Registrar. These are strangers who have been running paralympics in Kenya without any portfolio,” Awange said.
She further charged that their decision to lodge a complaint with SDT was informed by the challenges many mentally handicapped sportspersons encounter to make the national team for international assignments.
“We are stopping it because there is a lot of injustice. We go through a lot to train our kids at the grassroots but whenever we bring them for trials, they are left out despite being good. We are always excluded when it comes to paralympic events in the country. So, we decided to stop the elections until they do the right thing,” she said.
SDT further directed that the two federations be included in any plans to hold elections and be allowed to forward their respective nominees to participate in the process.
