The High Court has ordered Athletics Kenya officials, led by its President Jackson Tuwei, to vacate office and hold fresh elections after serving their tenure in office.
In a judgment delivered on Thursday, March 7, 2024, Milimani High Court Judge Lawrence Mugambi ordered all the officials and executive committee of Athletics Kenya (AK) who have been in office for 8 years to leave with immediate effect after a successful lawsuit by athletes led by Moses Tanui, Wilson Boit and Mary Chemweno.
“An order is hereby issued that by dint Sections 46 and 49 of the Sports Act and the Second Schedule thereof, the officials and Executive Committee of the 1st respondent (Athletics Kenya) who have been in office for a cumulative period of 8 years since the coming into force of the Sports Act have served their terms in full and must forthwith vacate office. They shall be ineligible to contest for any position in the organization,” Judge Mugambi directed.
The petitioners said that the decision taken to amend AK Constitution was null and void as it was in breach of the Constitution and the Sports Act. They said: “This process involved a number of meetings held to discuss the amendments to the constitution. The main one was an Annual General Meeting (AGM) scheduled to take place on April 27, 2016, which approved the constitution on that very day.”
They added that AK, through Tuwei in November 2015, begun the process of reviewing the body’s Constitution so that its provisions could be compliant with the Constitution of Kenya and the Sports Act.
“An order is hereby issued directing Athletics Kenya to carry out further review of its Constitution adopted and/or ratified on April 27, 2016, within the next 90 days of making this order with a view to considering public views gathered during its last review for purposes of enhancing inclusivity, democratic representation of various players in the athletics discipline into the 1st Respondent’s top decision-making organ and to guarantee enhanced transparency in areas of concern raised by the public/stakeholders,” the judgement said.
But the prayers of the petitioners fell on deaf ears after the judge, in his decision, also ordered athletics governing body to conduct fresh elections in compliance with the Constitution of Kenya and the Sports Act and barred all the current officials under the leadership of Tuwei not to participate in the polls.
The decision by the court comes after ten top former Kenya athletes accused the AK officials of undemocratically proceeding to adopt the amended constitution at its Annual General Meeting held on April 27, 2016.
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