Kenya's 12-Year Nike Deal

Kenya: Queries Over Nike’s 12-Year Multi-Million Deal

The East African Standard (Nairobi)

June 4, 2006
Posted to the web June 5, 2006

Omulo Okoth
Nairobi

Kenya’s athletics authorities have committed the nation to a multi-million shilling contract with an American apparel manufacturer, which will last well beyond their tenure in office.

The separate deals between Nike, Athletics Kenya and National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK), sealed in 2003, are each worth an estimated Sh40m a year, a figure which rises at a graded amount annually.

The deal raises troubling questions coming only eight months after this newspaper exclusively revealed a scam in which official Kenya national team Nike apparel was being sold for a song in Nairobi streets. Seven traders were arrested and discharged pending further investigations.

“It is strange that the associations would sign (a long term contract that covers three Olympic Games, including one whose venue was yet to be decided,” remarked a senior Government official, who declined to be named.

The contracts were signed to cover 2004 Olympics in Athens, 2008 Games in Beijing and 2012, to be held in London, but whose venue had not been decided by the time the contracts were signed.

AK Chairman, Isaiah Kiplagat, denied their contract with Nike ends in 2012, insisting that it would end in 2008, although correspondence in our possession clearly show the contract ends in 2012.

Challenged on the issue, Kiplagat said only the NOC-K contract goes to 2012.

Contacted, Tom O’Omwombo, the NOCK Secretary General, played down the issue, saying it did not matter whether the contract ended in 2008, 2012 or 2016 “so long as both parties are happy with the contract.”

He, however, confirmed that both contracts are usually signed simultaneously for a similar period of time. Conventional practice in product endorsement is for deals to be signed for a specific cycle such as one Olympic Games period.

World football governing body, Fifa, caused a storm when it signed a contract to cover 2002 and 2006 World Cup finals with its collapsed marketing partner, International Sport and Leisure.

According to O’Omwombo, athletics is the product they sell to Nike, meaning AK receives more money than the Olympic body.

NOCK received Sh37,039,470 as grant from Nike in 2004, Sh4m more than what they received in 2003.

AK received four quarterly grants of $160,000 from Nike, totalling $640,000 for last year.

AK benefits from extra perks from Nike such as a van and the construction of their headquarters, Riadha House, which cost approximately Sh20m.

Kiplagat, however, said it is NOCK which calls the shots when it comes to Nike contracts because they are tied to the Olympic cycle.

He said part of the money is used to organise weekend meetings, national championships and trials for global championships.

During his visit to Kenya at the Sports Personality of the Year Awards Awards in March, Nike CEO, John Capriotti, declined an interview with the Press.

Kiplagat equally declined to discuss the financial details of the contract and would not be drawn on indications that the American company may be paying some officials extra money, ostensibly to make them available on telephone 24 hours a day.

A confidential memo from a senior Nike official sent to AK and seen by The Sunday Standard outlined some of these perks:

“Being that Nike has recently extended our agreement with Athletics Kenya through December 31, 2012, I wanted to send you a letter outlining our understanding regarding the Honorariums that we pay to Athletics Kenya,” wrote the Nike official.

"I feel that clarification is necessary in order to expedite future payments and in case people who currently understand the Honorarium leave their positions.

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"The Honorarium is an annual payment that Nike makes directly to the Federation in order to ensure that certain Federation members will provide, and will have adequate funding for, certain services that Nike considers critical to maximizing our value from the agreement and our investment.

“These activities include travelling with the national team to events, travelling to meet with Nike at our request, ensuring that top athletes attend and compete at events, and maintaining regular contact with Nike by being available to receive calls 24 hours per day etc.”

“Furthermore, it is Nike’s understanding that these payments are made with the full knowledge of the Federation, and how the Federation chooses to distribute these monies among Federation members is at their sole discretion.”

NEVER MIND WHAT MAY HAPPEN IN 12 YEARS TIME. KENYA ATHLETICS SHOULD BE MORE CONCERNED RIGHT NOW ABOUT THEIR NIKE CLOTHING ARRANGEMENTS. I WAS TALKING RECENTLY WITH CONNECTIONS OF REUBEN KOSGEI, THE GREAT STEEPLECHASER, AFTER IT WAS NOTED HE WON BRONZE AT THE COMMONWEALTH GAMES WEARING REEBOK SHOES. APPARENTLY THIS WAS BECAUSE THE NIKE SHOES NEVER TURNED UP. THE KENYAN VEST HE RAN IN HAD TO BE PASSED ON TO THE GUY IN THE NEXT EVENT BECAUSE THERE WEREN’T ENOUGH UNIFORMS TO GO AROUND IN MELBOURNE, AND THE FIRST TIME HE SAW A KENYAN TRACKSUIT WAS WHEN HE HAD TO BORROW ONE TO RECEIVE HIS MEDAL ON THE PODIUM! SEEMS THERE WAS PLENTY OF NATIONAL TEAM GEAR ON THE STREETS OF KENYA THOUGH. kk

They’re all a pack of thieven magpies. Is that what you’re trying to say KK?

I might be able to clear a little bit of all this here. In Egypt we once had a deal with adidas to supply for track and field clothing. The athletes are so so poor. So they start selling the stuff they get and buy low quality stuff to train with. Thats about the selling bit. As for how a federation can mess up things… I can’t say a word here. Because if someone from my federation got to know what I said, this will probably be my last post. But what I can say is that its worse than you can ever ever ever ever imagine. The problem is not with the president of the federation. But with the people working under him. They always hide stuff from him and this stuff, I swear to god, can make some people puke at the moment they hear it… Sadly. I can’t trust saying anything online. I have seen that a lot of federations are simillar to ours. Specially the ones of poor countries. I saw how some of them work with their athletes and come on!!! Charlie is not happy with the canadian federation. God. You must come down here then. Or to any of the simillar federations.

In 2004 I was in budapest. They sent the secratary of the federation with me. He saved the money he had to pay for his room ( or lets say he robbed it ) and he slept in the room that was given to me by the IAAF. So I had to sleep in the lobby most of the time. And when the guy at the desk got pissed off, I started sleeping in the warm up track in the morning. I took my training cloths and acted I was warming up and then I put a towel on my head and sit as if I will stretch and then I sleep for a while… And one day Andy Norman called us and saied he wanted to see us. And since the guy with me didn’t speak English, french or anything. I had to go and translate. Talking to Andy I knew he wanted to push some of the Egyptian athletes that are close to Olympic qualifying times into some meets and try to push them a little to make it there. And that would be from June to the end of july. And he would get everything organized as well as accomedation and transportation and everything. He just wanted to talk to the president of our federation to make a deal and get a few names and start. So When I told that secretary of our federation that was with me. He looked at the guy and said this in arabic. " I have a good 14 year old kid who can throw the javlin, looks really nice. " So There was the sudaneese representative and he knows English and Arabic. And so I had to translate exactly cause someone there knows what was just said and he will tell him sooner or later. Andy looked at me in a strange way. I told him I’m sorry. We have problems. He said I can see that… And he just left!!!

I just want to say that this is nothing to other things that happen down here and in many other poor countries… But you know what… I am proud of these people who come up and still win and prove them selves no mattar what. I’m one of these who will never give up just because a federation member wants to upgrade his car from a 5 series to a 7 series… I’m sorry. Not me. I won’t give up.

Raymond DeVries was managing some of the Kenyan runners in 1987, when thugs from the federation came and beat up the athletes and took their passports to prevent them from getting money from meets that the officials couldn’t get their hands on.

I don’t want to bash the place but I spent 3 months in Kenya from 94-95 and one of the last days there a police officer shot a bus driver because the driver wouldn’t give him a bribe.

I guess it’s the way things work in these countries.

I do remember the odd time getting up real early to head down to the coast and seeing all the runners out before sunrise to avoid the heat. Very cool indeed.

not bad running 6.90 like that!!

I didn’t do 6.90!. I did 7.02 and I looked so embarassed and I wanted to dissapear even before knowing the time, because about everyone beat me. But to say the truth. After finishing the race all I was thinking about was a nap. And thats what I did. I went back to the warm up track and slept again without even bothering to know about my time. Its because the night before I had about no sleep and I was so ill… SOO Ill. Because I had to spend most of my time hiding away from the official. And to hide I had to go outside. And so I stayed for quite a while outdoors. The Sub-way was a bit warm. Better than the snow outside, that I was not used to at all… But still All this cold got to me and I was so ill and I was hardly moving around. The worst thing is that the cold really got to my back as well. And that back injury has just gone away a few weeks ago. Thats why I will never forget the experiance. Its because my back got worse and worse with the cold to the point that It took over two more years to recover. All of that because the official will save him self a few 100 dollars. When I came back to Egypt. I asked to meet the president of the federation. But sadly… They found a way to keep me away from him. I still want to see him up to this day… I will see him and tell him what happened. I am sure he doesn’t know. They told him that I was staying out all the time and at night I was in the bar and I then go and sleep with girls at night and thats why I under performed. I did 6.90 and 6.89 at a couple of trials here ( 20min in between the two runs ) while slowing down and when they asked me why. I said that I keeping some powder dry for later. So they expected something like a low 6.8 or a 6.7 high… When the guy told them that I was out spending time in the bar and with girls they thought I was not a serious athlete. And of course I didn’t do any of this. A lot of girls did offer me to go and sleep in the extra bed in their rooms but I always refused. I knew it was not about me sleeping on the extra bed. And then after all that I am still accused of all this… They stopped the money they used to give me and got me off the national team and bye bye… And its been 2 years of trying to fix my back. And guess what. When I’m back. And I’m currently doing very well and coming back so fast after my back is good, they will welcome me as if nothing happened and they will just say… Sorry… What should I do with sorry??? What ??? Whats sorry??? Its nothing to what happened to me. But all I care about right now, is that I want to get back to breaking my bests like before so that I can get a chance to pop on the top here again and then I’m sure I will see the president of the federation 1 day. And I wish he will give me the time to tell him all of what happened then I wish he just listens to me then. I guess he will. Its all so dangerous stuff and he must know about it… Just wish me good luck guys. And the time will come.