Civil war hampers Kenya's progress

While the Kenya Cricket Association presses for Test status, closer to home it is embroiled in a row which has ripped Kenyan cricket apart as well as leaving its reputation tarnished, bankrupted the board, and left a legacy from which it might take a decade to recover.

The KCA is in dispute with the two main cricket bodies inside Kenya - the Nairobi Provincial Cricket Association (NPCA) and the Coast Cricket Association (CCA). The NPCA and CCA, which represent the vast majority of clubs and players in the country, accuse the board of financial and administrative mismanagement over a number of years, and it is hard to argue against the evidence.

At the heart of the claims is one that the KCA constitution, as it now stands, is illegal. Under the old constitution, which was replaced during a controversial and ill-tempered meeting in November 2003, the spread of votes would not have been enough for the hierarchy to cling on. Prior to July 2002, the executive committee had 11 votes, the NPCA eight and the CCA five. Knowing full well what was in store, and that the two regional associations could outvote it, the KCA acted.

In July 2002 the KCA unconstitutionally disaffiliated the NPCA, Kenya's largest and by far most influential cricketing body, for a spurious reason, and announced it was setting up its own new provincial branches, each of which would get three votes. These were to be in Nairobi (replacing the NPCA), Rift Valley, and Nyanza. Unless all three opposed the executive, it could not be outvoted. As one official said: "The sole purpose of forming these branches is to facilitate the perpetuation of a small cabal of the present regime by the extra votes they stand to receive."

There were two problems with this. The first was that the action to form these branches was unconstitutional, because none had applied to become an affiliate, as demanded by the KCA's own constitution. These new provincial branches were set up at the behest of the executive. Secondly, and more importantly, two of the regions (Rift Valley and Nyanza) did not have the three active cricket clubs required for them even to apply for provincial status. The third, Nairobi, has remained inactive since its supposed inception and presently attracts the support of only two of the NPCA's 28 clubs.

Repeated attempts by the CCA to raise the issue were dismissed, and deeper concerns arose about the accountability of the KCA's executive committee, and how funds received by the KCA were being used. While both the NPCA and CCA continued to promote and encourage the growth and development of cricket, the KCA was to all intents doing nothing.

The KCA then decided to hold its elections and a date for the Annual General Meeting was set - May 29, 2004. The CCA, however, argued that the meeting was illegal as free and fair elections had to be held first. The KCA rejected the CCA's protest, and on the eve of the meeting the CCA applied for, and won, an injunction preventing the meeting taking place.

The hearing of the CCA's application for its injunction to continue until the suit was heard was set for July 23, but in the meantime Jimmy Rayani, the KCA chairman, resigned and was replaced by Sharad Ghai, formerly the fixtures secretary but widely acknowledged as the man running the KCA. To represent it at the hearing, the KCA retained a leading Kenyan lawyer, George Oraro, who is understood to have pressed the KCA executive to agree to settle. On July 23, on the steps of the court, an offer to settle on terms suggested by Oraro was drawn up for consideration by the KCA and the CCA in an attempt to resolve the impasse. Pending further discussions, the hearing was adjourned until September.

The KCA's move appears to be clearly no more than an attempt to buy time, but time is just what the executive is running out of. Manipulation of the system is no longer the easy route is was, and the government, having sorted out the mess which was Kenyan football, is now going after cricket. And once people see which way the tide has turned, there will be no shortage of those formerly loyal to the KCA who are willing to rethink their position and reveal what has really been going on for the last few years.