Committee to decide way out of local swimming crisis

Kenya Swimming Federation

A swimmer in action during the Kenya Swimming Federation (KSF) National Championship at Bandari Maritime Academy in Mombasa on June 26, 2022.


Photo credit: Abdulrahman Sheriff | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • KSF’s acting president, Zack Musembi, welcomed Fina’s intervention saying it's the best way to redeem the country’s image in swimming after groping in the dark for over five years.
  • “SDT kept on forming committee after another yet an interim committee should run for six months with perhaps a one-term extension. SDT has taken us in circles for close to six years,” he said.

Kenya Swimming Federation (KSF) Stabilisation Committee will have its first session on Friday to decide the way forward in solving problems facing the sport in Kenya.

The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) Secretary General, Francis Mutuku, who is in the three-man committee appointed by world swimming governing body, Fina, to run swimming activities in Kenya, disclosed that the meeting will be held in Kampala.

Fina appointed South Africa’s Jace Naidoo to head the committee that has Mutuku and Moses Benon Mwase from Uganda.

Mutuku said that he will be in Kampala on Friday for an International Olympic Committee (IOC) meeting to plan for the 2024 Paris Summer Games, and he would get an opportunity to meet Mwase in Uganda.

“We shall incorporate Naidoo, who is in South Africa, in the meeting virtually,” said Mutuku, adding that it’s from the meeting that they shall set the programme of activities that will culminate into announcement of a date for KSF elections.

One of the activities, Mutuku said, is to meet FINA officials, KSF officials and stakeholders in swimming, preferably before the start of the 2022 Commonwealth Games on July 28 so as to bring everyone to the table.

While appointing the Stabilisation Committee, FINA Executive Director Brent Nowicki said the world body was forced to do so after KSF failed to hold elections, based on rules and regulations compliant with Fina’s guidelines.

In a letter dated June 28, this year to KSF and Sports Disputes Tribunal chairman John Ohaga, Nowicki detailed that the stabilisation committee will run all day-to-day operations of the KSF for six months.

Mutuku said the period is enough for the committee to bring sanity to swimming that has been embroiled in wrangles since 2016.

“It’s our prayer that the swimming fraternity will cash in on the grace period that Fina has accorded Kenya to quickly move forward. 90 percent of work had been completed and the remaining part was to comply,” said Mutuku.

KSF’s acting president, Zack Musembi, welcomed Fina’s intervention saying it's the best way to redeem the country’s image in swimming after groping in the dark for over five years.

“SDT kept on forming committee after another yet an interim committee should run for six months with perhaps a one-term extension. SDT has taken us in circles for close to six years,” he said.