By Lorraine Ruto,
The Allan Kasavuli led National Executive Committee (Nec) has stepped down from the leadership of Kenyan Premier League (KPL) giants AFC Leopards.
However, the club will be taken over by a Caretaker Committee comprising mostly of its former officials led the Nairobi County Assembly Speaker Alex Ole Magelo for a transitional period of six months before the elections.
Magelo will serve as the patron with its former treasurer Nairobi based businessman Amin Walji taking over as chairman.
Magelo opted for the patron’s position instead of reclaiming his former post because he is gunning for the chairmanship of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) in its forthcoming polls.
Other members are AFC’s former assistant treasurer Duncan Angode,Charles Bukeko comedian popularly known as Papa Shirandula, Linet Mirehani, Maurice Amahwa, Martin Andati and Lincoln Amwayi.
Other committee members include former AFC Leopards and national team Harambee Stars defenders Josephat ‘Controller’ Murila and George
Sunguti form the committee.
Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli and former AFC chairman Alfred Sambu who is the current Webeye East Member of Parliament (MP) have been co-opted as elders while Westlands MP Tim Wanyonyi is the Trustee.
Speaking on behalf of the executive, Kasavuli cited pressure and said with the withdrawal of Mumias Sugar as the shirt sponsors they were
faced with financial difficulties which incapicated their administration.
He said they were a lean team following deaths and suspension which rendered them useless to transact the club’s affairs in which it had
been hard to replace them through an Annual General Meeting (AGM) forcing them to take this action.
Kasavuli said they will continue serving the club from outside and will give any assistance that the caretaker committee will require.
The Caretaker committee’s mandate will be to keep the team afloat while exploiting commercial opportunities.
The committee will come up with various committees which includefinance, marketing and operations and then appoint a Commercial
Director in its first meeting at an unspecified date.
Magelo and Walji appealled to the AFC Leopards family to accord them the necessary support in order to make their work easy and manageable.