Proposed Nock constitution fails to sail through at vote

The proposed new National Olympic Committee of Kenya constitution failed to get the required threshold for its adoption on Tuesday.

Even though “ayes” for the new constitution were a majority 19 votes against 13, those pushing for its implementation failed to garner the required two thirds of the votes from the General Assembly.

For the new constitution to have been passed, it required a total of 22 votes in the affirmative.

The poll was conducted using the old constitution where the current executive committee members had a head start of 11 votes.

Apparently, all the incumbent executives voted against adoption of the new constitution with all the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) affiliate federations voting for it.

The General Assembly was held at the Panari Hotel, Nairobi, and attended by observers from the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa (Anoca).

Jerome Poivey, the head of institutional relations and governance at the IOC, and Mohamed Azzoug, Anoca President’s chief of staff, were observers at the Panari General Assembly.

The General Assembly, initially called last week on Tuesday, ended prematurely when Nock President Kipchoge Keino called it off after delegates failed to agree on several components in the draft constitution, prompting for the new date at which the votes were cast.

The country now risks a ban from the IOC who had insisted that Nock elections must be held under a new constitution before the end of March of this year.

However, Nock assist secretary general James Chacha said it's not the executive that shot down the new constitution but the General Assembly.

Chacha said that democracy prevailed and Nock election will go ahead at the end of May or early June under the old constitution.