KBF President Otula retains seat, promises 'heaven'

Long-serving Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) boss Paul Otula has made huge promises to Kenyans after narrowly retaining his position in peaceful elections held at the Aquatic Centre at Nyayo Stadium in Nairobi on Saturday.

Serving in his second and final term under the new KBF constitution and his fourth overall, Otula said the intentions of the new office include making basketball the number one sport in Kenya, top-five in Africa and putting Kenya’s basketball on the world map.

He started off by listing some of the successes from his first term under the Sports Act 2013. For the first time, he said, Kenya Morans have participated in an event that they have not been active in.

“We also have more referees and the coaching level is quite good in our clubs and institutional teams, no wonder we have a very strong national team.”

The climax of it all, Otula says, are Morans who have done the country proud.

“They are a heartbeat away from qualifying for FIBA AfroBasket,” said Otula.

Morans, who stunned the continent in AfroCan with a silver medal finish in 2019, are in Group “B” of the AfroBasket qualifiers together with Senegal, Angola and Mozambique.

Cliff Owuor’s men need to finish in the top-three bracket in their group in Yaounde next month to return to AfroBasket for the first time since 1993. They are currently in the third spot after beating Mozambique and losing to Senegal and Angola.

“We are very sure of qualifying for the next level,” said a confident Otula as he revealed that “we are going to continue with the strategies we have put in place to ensure we leave a legacy”.

He promised to lead Kenyan basketball to “a level it has never been.” “Not just basketball in Kenya, but in Africa,” he said and challenged English-speaking countries like Kenya to step up to end dominance of Francophone countries (and Angola).

His only opponent Cynthia Mumbo was thankful for the experience of contesting for the top seat and promised to continue supporting basketball. “I lost by 12 votes. Considering it was my first time, it was not bad,” she told Nation Sport.

Hilmy Ali (First Vice Chairman), Donald Liruh (Second Vice Chairman), Ambrose Kisoi (Secretary General), Peter Orero (Treasurer), Joseph Amoko (Fixtures Secretary) and Steve Nyakina (Assistant fixtures secretary) all retained their positions unopposed.

Kenyan international Angela Luchivya was elected on her first attempt as the assistant secretary general unopposed.

Luke Ogolla was ousted from the assistant treasurer’s position after garnering a paltry seven votes. Louise Araka garnered 49 votes, two ahead of Nelly Odera, to clinch the seat.