It is one of the three bodies created under the Sports Act 2013; on the face of it a very transformative idea but in reality, the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) is murked sometimes in confusion and controversy. The jury is still out if it has achieved even half of its mandate!

Under the leadership of veteran city lawyer John Ohaga, his main job was primarily to ensure that sporting organizations played to the rules to professionalize the industry and take care of Athletes. Today 10 years on, it would still appear the SDT has created mistrust amongst most Federations who are seen as keen to retain the status quo and keep the Sports industry in the trenches somewhat with disorganization if not for inept management.

Ohaga who ended his tenure at SDT last week, was immediately appointed to lead a task force set up to review the policy, legal and institutional framework of sports in Kenya. The task force appointed by Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen on Friday has 16 members and four secretaries.

At the SDT, Ohaga left a legacy somewhat as the first ever office holder but also had a mixed bag going by the cases his Organization dealt with in his decade at the helm. Amongst the most intense cases he handled were the numerous back and forth cases regarding the eligibility of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) office after a host of petitioners had dragged the office under Nick Mwendwa for not meeting the threshold under the Sports Act.

The FKF has been one of the few Federations that have made appearances over a dozen times due to what critics have called the abuse of power and misappropriation of funds. Indeed because of these cases that also saw the Government drawn in, Kenya was banned by FIFA in 2022. Ohaga and his panel have thus had to carefully weigh the thin line between managing the internal football politics and stamping their foot as a Constitutional body who were established to protect Kenyans interest.

The Certified Arbitrator and Senior Counsel with over 30 years in practice had to on certain occasions be called to use his Solomonic wisdom when dealing with issues with national team selection concerns especially for tours of duty like Olympics Games. Balancing playing mediator but also being firm on decisions when it came to creating sanity and discipline particularly when merit was in play, Ohaga who is a Senior Partner at the TripleOK Law firm earned friends and foe but also respect and disdain amongst others dependent on circumstances.

Athletics Kenya (AK) also had some Branches or Athletes under them being regular customers at his Tribunal with the most pressing issues being on involvement and input from Coaches and Technical staff in making decisions on whom to draft for the Games with National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) sometimes being drawn in as interested parties in what has been a sensitive topic.