The global governing body for swimming and aquatic sports, World Aquatics, has taken the drastic step of imposing a complete ban on Kenya’s participation in international competitions.
This action comes in response to the ongoing failure of the Kenya Swimming Federation (KSF) to conduct scheduled elections.
The KSF has not held elections since 2014, with disagreements among current officials over various aspects of the election process contributing to the prolonged impasse.
As a result of this internal strife, the federation has been unable to establish a duly elected leadership team.
World Aquatics had set a deadline of July 8 for the KSF to hold elections, warning that failure to do so would result in the country’s exclusion from international events.
The elections, which had been scheduled for the previous month, were derailed by a lack of a returning officer, as the Centre of Corporate Governance claimed they were subject to “coercion and intimidation from various petitioners.”
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In the absence of a legitimately elected leadership within the federation, Kenyan athletes participating in aquatic competitions will be overseen by an Interim Management Committee (IMC) and a Stabilization Committee, which was appointed by FINA (Fédération Internationale de Natation) back in 2019.
A public notice published in local newspapers on July 7 cited an ongoing case in the High Court of Kenya as the reason behind the suspension of the election process.
This suspension occurred despite the efforts of Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba, who had selected a five-member team to facilitate the elections.
The internal disputes plaguing the sport have even reached the court system, with legal injunctions issued to halt the progress of new elections.
The international ban has sparked disappointment and outrage from stakeholders within Kenya’s swimming community. Initially, Kenya had been operating under a suspension that allowed individual Kenyan swimmers to participate in global events, albeit without the national flag.
However, World Aquatics has escalated the consequences by instituting a comprehensive ban, which also includes the cessation of funding to local swimming associations.
A statement from the Kenya Aquatics Stabilization Committee explained the decision, blaming “deliberate actions of identifiable members of the swimming fraternity within Kenya” for obstructing the efforts of the Stabilization Committee to facilitate a smooth election process and to establish a new Executive Board for Kenya Aquatics.
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