Kenya Rugby Union (KRU) Chairman Sasha Mutai during the interview on NTV sports show SportOn at Nation Centre, Nairobi on April 08, 2024.
When the boardroom doors at the RFUEA grounds in Nairobi swing open on March 24 for the Annual General Meeting, an unprecedented war will commence at the heart of Kenyan rugby.
Meant to be a KRU housekeeping event, the AGM will now be a battleground that could leave behind unexpected casualties following boardroom wrangles that have exposed possible financial and governance weaknesses at the apex rugby administrator in Kenya.
Two factions have emerged, each tailoring their armour with cloth from the KRU Constitution and accusing the other of violating the law and mismanaging the sport.
What seemed like a war between chairman Alexander Kiplagat Mutai, popularly known as Sasha, and Honorary Secretary Raymond Olendo has snowballed into a conflict that has split the top echelons in half.
Sasha, who vowed on Citizen TV yesterday to fight in courts those planning to remove him from office, wants Olendo out of KRU and vice versa.
Through its chairman, Jason Rosario Braganza, recently relegated Mwamba RFC has filed a motion seeking to remove Olendo from office.
Olendo and KRU Vice-Chairman Moses Ndale have led six board members, including former Shujaa captain Humphrey Kayange, in filing a motion to remove Sasha from office.
Ironically, the club Kayange spent his entire playing career in, Mwamba, and where he is still a key figure, is the one that has filed the motion for Sasha’s removal.
In their motion, that faction claims that Sasha sponsored the motion for the removal of Olendo and a section of directors, which they also cite as grounds for the chairman’s removal.
Last Friday, the signatories of the removal motion against Sasha resolved, in what they term an Emergency Board meeting, to suspend the chairperson. The meeting resolved to appoint Ndale as the acting chairperson.
Sasha has challenged that move, writing to the other faction through Kipkenda & Company Advocates, and maintained that the meeting was irregular and that he is still the KRU chairman.
Sasha has, since his election in June 2023, accused Olendo of using a forged Credit Reference Bureau clearance certificate to contest for the Honorary Secretary position.
Mwamba RFC’s motion of no confidence against Olendo cites this as grounds for removal from office.
The Mwamba RFC motion also accused Olendo of using a non-existent law firm to mint over Sh11 million from KRU.
“The Law Society of Kenya, in a reply to an inquiry by the KRU chairman… confirmed that Jared Orare and Raymond Olendo were partners in the law firm of Olendo, Orare & Samba Advocates LLP.
The letter further stated that there was no advocate practicing under the name and style of Orare & Company Advocates, meaning that Orare & Company Advocates is a non-existent law firm.
This can only mean that Orare & Company Advocates was used by Mr Raymond Olendo and Mr Jared Orare to siphon funds out of the Kenya Rugby Union,” the motion by Mwamba RFC chairman Braganza states.
On the other hand, the motion against Sasha claims that the chairman irregularly appointed Shujaa team manager Steve Sewe, whom the Olendo faction claims mishandled travel for the national seven-a-side team that led the KRU to lose over Sh1.3 million.
That travel mishap, the Olendo faction adds, affected the team’s performance in Vancouver, where Shujaa lost all their fixtures.
Sasha, the Olendo side claims, shielded Sewe from disciplinary proceedings.
“Mr. Mutai allegedly used his position to force the appointment of Mr. Steve Sewe (a personal associate) as Team Manager without interviews or due process, disregarding the Board’s authority and standard procedure as affects appointments of this nature.
This appointment has reportedly led to severe operational lapses, including failure to secure flights for the entire Shujaa team during the Challenger Series, causing missed connections and incomplete bookings for half the team ahead of the Vancouver Sevens, requiring KRU to spend millions to rectify errors,” read the notice of motion from Chairman Homeboyz RFC Oscar Mango.
