This archive report was first published on 7 August 2019.
On August 6, 2019, the Sports Disputes Tribunal made a ruling that quashed Badminton Kenya's selected team for the All Africa Games in Morocco, scheduled to take place from August 19 to 31. The tribunal ordered the federation to pick a fresh squad in strict conformity with the selection procedures.
With time running out, Badminton Kenya must act quickly to fulfill this requirement. The claimants, led by Abraham Wogute, accused the federation of arbitrarily locking out players to participate in the national team.
According to the petitioners, 50 percent of the team members selected did not meet the requirements set out in the selection policy. Specifically, they failed to participate in at least 50 percent of the tournaments in the ranking period.
Badminton Kenya President Peter Muchiri Kamau claimed that the federation deliberately delayed the selection and communication of the national team to the games, flouting their own timelines in the process.
However, in a startling admission, Muchiri accepted that only six out of the eight selected players met the selection criterion. The selected players included Sammy Sikoyo, Edwin Akwany, Mercy Joseph, Sharon Juma, and Shana Patel.
Despite a proposal by the president to remove two players from the squad to open up slots for players who would qualify by fair selection, the proposal was rejected. The Sports Tribunal Committee instead nullified the whole selection process.
“Come back with the names of each of the persons who will participate in the play-offs and the reason why you have selected them and a structure of the play-offs under which we will then adopt as an order of the tribunal,” Tribunal boss John Ohaga ruled.
“Also provide a date of the playoffs because we will want you to come back and give us the selection which we will adopt.”
