International Olympic Committee (IOC) President Thomas Bach arrives in Kenya today morning for a three-day official visit described by his hosts, the National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K), as “a critical milestone in Kenya’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its global sports positioning.”
The visit comes less than two weeks after another global sports leader, International Cycling Union (UCI) President David Lappartient of France, was in town to close the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) Road Cycling African Championship held principally in Eldoret and Iten.
And earlier this year, World Athletics’ British President, Sebastian Coe, came calling in Eldoret, though on the sad note of world marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum’s burial.
“This (Bach’s) highly anticipated visit, taking place from October 24 to 26, represents a significant moment for Kenya as it welcomes one of the most influential figures in global sports,” NOC-K said at the weekend in a press release announcing the German’s visit.
Union of International Cycling President David Lappartient during the Confederation of African Cycling congress at The Stanley Hotel, Nairobi on April 25, 2023.
Photo credit: Chris Omollo | Nation Media Group
“President Bach’s visit marks a critical milestone in Kenya’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its global sports positioning, enhance athlete development programmes, and deepen partnerships within the Olympic Movement,” NOC-K added.
“We are deeply honoured to host President Bach and the IOC directors, whose contributions to our programmes, athlete scholarships, and global engagement have been invaluable,” NOC-K President, Olympic legend Paul Tergat said in the release.
Bach is programmed to visit the Kakuma Refugee Camp and also meet with Kenya’s sports leaders besides touring the Kip Keino Orphanage in Uasin Gishu County.
“His presence now is a testament to Kenya's standing in sports and the strong ties between NOC-K and the IOC. This visit is more than just an honour; it is an opportunity for Kenya to leverage sports diplomacy to showcase its culture, diversity, and passion for sports,” Tergat added.
World Athletics President Sebastian Coe signs the visitors book on January 4, 2023 at Maktaba Kuu in Nairobi where he held a meeting with Sports CS Ababu Namwamba.
Photo credit: Pool | Ministry of Sports
Bach’s visit is even more significant as in just five months, there will be a change of guard in Lausanne when seven candidates battle to take over from the German as IOC President at the Olympic body’s 114th Session that runs from March 18 to 22, 2025, in Greece.
This after the seven hopefuls make their pitches before IOC Members at an Extraordinary Session at the Olympics body’s Lausanne headquarters on January 30.
The in-camera meeting will allow IOC’s 111 permanent members, among them Kenya’s Tergat and retired rugby star Humphrey Kayange, make a decision on who is best suited to take over from the 70-year-old Bach.
The IOC’s 38 honorary members, who include Kenyan legend Kipchoge Keino, don’t enjoy voting rights with the IOC President elected by secret ballot by the 111 permanent members for a maximum eight-year mandate renewable once for four years.
Among the seven candidates on the ballot next March are Coe and Lappartient, considered by many as frontrunners for the top IOC position held by Bach -- a 1976 Olympic fencing gold medallist -- since he took over from the late Belgian Jacque Rogge on September 10, 2013.
Rogge had taken over the IOC reins in 2001 from Spain’s Juan Antonio Samaranch (deceased) whose son, Juan Antonio Samaranch Jnr, is one of five other hopefuls battling Coe and Lappartient for the most influential position in global sport.
Samaranch Jnr is Vice-President of the International Modern Pentathlon Union (UIPM) and has also served as IOC Vice-President from 2016 to 2020 and again from 2022 to date.
The other candidates are Briton Johan Eliasch, President of the International Ski and Snowboard Federation (FIS), two-time Olympic swimming gold medallist and Zimbabwe’s Sports Minister Kirsty Coventry, and International Gymnastics Federation President Morinari Watanabe.
And then there’s His Royal Highness Prince Feisal Al Hussein, President of Jordan’s Olympic Committee who was elected as an IOC Member in 2010 as an individual member.
Bach’s current tour of Africa, probably his final one as IOC President, will see him traverse South Africa, Senegal, Lesotho, Uganda and Kenya.
The tour started last week in Dakar, hosts of the 2026 Youth Olympics, where he was hosted by Mamadou Diagna Ndiaye, President of the Senegalese Olympic Committee and the Organising Committee of the 2026 Youth Olympics.
Also meeting him in Dakar were several African IOC members led by Morocco’s hurdles legend Nawal El Moutawakel who is also an IOC Vice President.
With Africa boasting 17 of the 111 IOC Members, representing about 15 per cent of the vote, certainly any candidate seeking the IOC’s top seat would fancy an African charm offensive that Coe and Lappartient are all too aware of, and which will also certainly feature in Bach’s behind-the-scenes talks on the continent.
The African IOC members are Vice President Nawal El Moutawakel (Morocco), Lydia Nsekera (Burundi), Aicha Garad Ali (Djibouti), Kirsty Coventry (Zimbabwe), Paul Tergat (Kenya), Dagmawit Girmay Berhane (Ethiopia) and Anant Singh (South Africa).
Others are Felicite Rwemarika (Rwanda), William Frederick Blick (Uganda), Odette Assembe Engolou (Cameroon), Filomena Fortes (Cape Verde), Matlohang Mailoa-Ramoqopo (Lesotho) and Tidjane Thiam (Cote d’ Ivoire).
The rest are Mustapha Berraf (Algeria), Humphrey Kayange (Kenya), Mehrez Boussayene (Tunisia), Aya Medany (Egypt).
The non-voting African IOC honorary members Mustapha Larfaoui (Algeria), Kipchoge Keino (Kenya), Lassana Palenfo (Cote d’Ivoire), Sam Ramsamy (South Africa), Habu Gumel (Nigeria) and Beatrice Allen (Gambia).
Ironically, despite being Zimbabwean, 41-year-old Coventry’s African strategy in her bid for the IOC Presidency hasn’t been felt with both Coe, 67, and Lappartient, 50, dangling the carrot for Africa.
Lappartient’s UCI handed Rwanda hosting rights for next year’s Road Cycling World Championships with Coe’s World Athletics having picked Kenya as hosts of the 2017 World Athletics Under-18 Championships and 2021 World Athletics Under-20 Championships, besides rewarding the continent with several World Athletics Series events, including Kenya’s Kip Keino Classic Continental Tour Gold and Gaborone’s Botswana Continental Tour Gold track and field meetings.
Both Lappartient and Coe were in Kenya, again, last year with Coe on a three-day semi-official visit in January during which time he also met with President William Ruto and held deliberations on, inter alia, Kenya’s anti-doping strategy.
To his credit, Coe, a double Olympic middle distance champion and chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Games Organising Committee, has transformed World Athletics into a transparent and attractive organization, raising it from the scandal-ravaged lows the Monaco-based federation sunk under the presidency of his predecessor, the late Senegalese Lamine Diack.
At the Paris Olympics in August this year, World Athletics controversially introduced prize money for Olympic gold medallists against the IOC’s tradition of not awarding cash prizes at the Olympics.
“I had the privilege of being a double Olympic Champion, I’ve chaired an Olympic and Paralympic Games – London 2012 – from bid, through delivery and legacy implementation, I’ve chaired a National Olympic Committee – the BOA – and I’ve led an international federation through some turbulent times, retaining athletics’ position as a cornerstone of the Olympic Games,” Coe said while announcing his candidature for the IOC Presidency.
Lappartient, on the other hand, was in Nairobi in April last year to oversee the Confederation of African Cycling (CAC) Congress as a build-up to Rwanda 2025 which will be the first ever Road Cycling World Championships to be held on African soil.
The Frenchman was impressed by Kenya’s organization of the recent continental competition in the North Rift.
It was the first time the 50-year-old Frenchman was attending a Road Cycling African Championship, an indication of his efforts to gain favour with the continent ahead of the March IOC vote.
While in Iten, Lappartient also weighed in, diplomatically, on his IOC ambitions: “I sent my candidature to the (IOC) President Thomas Bach, and since we are 111 members in the IOC, I will try to convince my colleagues and to try to do the best for the sport. The IOC and the Olympic Movement are key and the message we want to deliver is also key for the world.”
Kenya is already in Lappartient’s good books with the UCI and CAC planning a 1,000-kilometre “Tour of Kenya” from next year that will cycle through the country’s tourist attractions, including the Masai Mara area.
Currently, Belgium’s sports management giants Golazo, contracted at last year’s CAC Nairobi Congress as CAC’s marketing agents until 2028, are fine-tuning logistics for the proposed “Tour of Kenya” with the firm’s CEO Bob Verbeeck optimistic that this will be a game-changer for Kenyan and African cycling.
“We will do more events and also look for the younger riders to prepare them for the future… Africa is doing well, but I’d like Africa to be excellent,” CAC President Azzam, meanwhile, noted in Iten.
Earlier this month, Kenya hosted Commonwealth Sport President Chris Jenkins with Commonwealth Sport’s 30-nation Africa and Europe Regional Meeting being held in Mombasa, further cementing Kenya’s significance in global sports conversations that will be further highlighted by Bach’s visit this weekend.
