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Kenya’s Chef de Mission to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics Waithaka Kioni insists next year’s Summer Games will present a perfect opportunity to erase the bad memories of the 2016 Games held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
Team Kenya registered a historic performance in Rio where they bagged six gold, six silver and one bronze for a 15th place ranking, their third best showing ever in the history of the Olympics.
However, their stellar performance was overshadowed by a kit fiasco as well as misappropriation of funds that finally landed former National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) officials Francis Paul and Stephen Soi in court to face graft charges.
Kioni, who is also the Nock Deputy President, remains adamant that no coin will go unaccounted for in the Road to Tokyo as well as the Olympics proper.
“As the Chef de Mission, I can assure you that I will not tolerate it. I will not allow it. We would not want to tarnish our own reputations and that of Nock. Each of us in the executive committee has a reputation which we have built over the years. We will not allow our reputations to be spoilt by one or two people,” said Kioni before listing the gains made by the new Nock office since their election in September 2017.
“The organisation of the last Olympics brought a lot of disrepute to Noc-K despite the good performance of our athletes but we have been working hard to redeem the image.
“We have been having monthly meetings and all of us have agreed to be guided by the principles of good governance. We want our decisions to be ethical and to uphold transparency and accountability. I think we are on the right track and I believe I have what it takes to deliver,” he underlined.
The Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) president is optimistic that athletes from other disciplines will qualify for the Games and ease the burden on athletics who delivered all the 13 medals Kenya won in Rio.
“Kenya has been doing well in athletics but the truth is that we have a lot of potential in other sports."
“We need to invest in team sports seriously. Our men’s basketball team and women’s volleyball team are doing very well so we need to support them,” offered Kioni.
Noc-K has already settled for Japan’s Kurume City to host Kenya’s pre-Olympic Games camp.
“It’s a very generous gesture and we remain grateful to the government and embassy of Japan. I am hoping we can have very many athletes qualifying so that we can take full advantage of the facility offered,” said Kioni, who is also the Confederation of African Volleyball (CAVB) deputy president.
