A meeting of the Boxing Association of Kenya (BAK) council has banned national vice president Albert Matito and deputy secretary general David Munuhe for 10 years each for what was termed as grave misconduct.
The council meeting, held at Ligi Ndogo grounds and chaired by BAK president John Kameta on Wednesday, also agreed on November 16 as the date for the association’s national elections.
Munuhe and Matito claim that the meeting was specifically convened to target them and accused outgoing president Kameta, who will not be seeking re-election, of leading a witch-hunt and vowed to challenge the decision.
BAK secretary general Paul Mung’ori said that the Council comprising 23 members out of 27, unanimously voted to ban Munuhe for a decade after he was found guilty of having interfered with the computer scoring system that denied Dennis Muthama of Nairobi a semi-final match victory against Morris Ochieng of Kenya Police during the Mombasa leg of the national league last year.
Mung’ori disclosed that Charlconet Services Kenya, a firm that deals in data recovery, adversely implicated Munuhe, which amounted to match-fixing, a serious crime under International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) rules.
The anomaly that occurred on December 9, 2017 in Mombasa led the BAK board to declare the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) boxing team as the 2017 SportPesa National Boxing League champions after stripping Kenya Police of the title.
Police had retained the title with a total of 103 points, beating KDF by a point but after review, KDF won the league with 122 points and Police second on 120.
Munuhe trashed the report by Charlconet Services Kenya saying reformatting a computer doesn’t amount to match-fixing since the results were not altered.
“When the BAK Board went for a retreat in Mombasa to award KDF victory, it was said that some judges were involved. How do I come in,” said Munuhe.
Mung’ori indicated that the Council also unanimously voted to suspend Matito, who is the BAK Kisumu chairman, after he went to court to stop the BAK Council meeting. Both the High Court in Nairobi and Sports Dispute Tribunal dismissed appeal cases stopping the Council meeting on Monday.
“That is against AIBA and BAK rules since he didn’t exhaust the internal channels in trying to solve the issue,” said Mung’ori. “Members felt that it was open defiance from Matito.”
Terming the move null and void, Matito told the Council to prepare for a battle adding that more counties must be allowed to take part in the election. “No one is supreme and it’s a high time the one-man-show must end. We are all equal,” said Matito.
A seven-man committee has been formed to craft nomination rules ahead of the election which should harmonise both the local and International Amateur Boxing Association (AIBA) regulations.
The committee will be headed by Charles Ndwiga from BAK Prisons and has 14 days to hand in its report.
The delegates from eight of the nine counties adopted the revised Constitution that is in line with the Sports Act. Key among the changes is the shift of BAK regions to County Boxing Associations.
“After registration by Sports Registrar, an association may seek affiliation through the prescribed format and prove they have boxers and technical capacity. Registration by registrar alone doesn’t confer affiliation by AIBA affiliate,” said Mung’ori.
–nation.co.ke
