Tokyo 2020 Olympic chef De mission Waithaka Kioni says National Olympic Committee of Kenya are keen to redeem the association's image following a controversial Rio 2016 outing.
The Rio Games saw Team Kenya experience chaotic travel arrangements, inadequate training kits and doping-related bribery allegations against top officials.
In his acceptance speech during the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games launch on Wednesday in a Nairobi hotel, Kioni said all officials will subscribe to Code of Ethics to ensure they carry out their duties with decorum and will uphold the values of transparency, accountability and integrity.
Kioni said: “Allow me to first thank the NOCK management and the government for trusting me to undertake this important assignment as the Chef de Mission for Team Kenya to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.”
“Owing to what happened at the last games in Rio, I want to urge my management team to be more professional and act with the best interests of the athletes at heart, who are the key players. We know the last-minute rush has always cost us a fortune but we can avoid this and save the government money if we do things early.”
Kioni who is the Kenya Volleyball Federation chairman at the same time challenged the national women’s team technical bench to qualify the team to the Olympics or ship out.
“It will be a legacy I would love to embrace having the volleyball team to the event. It will be unfortunate if I lead a delegation to Japan but the sport I guide doesn’t appear anywhere,” noted Kioni.
"As we speak, the qualification process has already started and every federation is keen to qualify. We all know that next month's All Africa Games in Rabat, Morocco will serve as a qualification platform for some disciplines hence we must ensure we pick the teams on merit."
The national women’s volleyball team has two chances to qualify for the Olympics including the intercontinental qualifiers set for next week in Italy and next year's continental qualifiers in a yet to be decided venue.
