Steve Ouma Sets The Record Staight

After too much mud slinging Steve ouma finally gives his point of view.

By Steve Ouma

My fellow Chess players:

I believe all of us know that prolonged lie sometimes sound like truth. Also it has been believed that silent means concurring with whatever has been said. I want to take this moment to set the records straight.

1. On the allegations from John Mukabi whom I used to have alot of respect for him that Larry and I have been organizing Junior events and pocketing the Money, Ladies and Gentlemen this is false since the Youth Committee has been running Junior events since the Year 2009 and the treasurers to the accounts have been parents, all the records of the tournaments are intact and will be presented to the auditors, furthermore to withdraw the money from the accounts all the three signatories must sign.

2. On the allegation that Larry and Steve were opposed to the opening of the Youth Account, this is false because it is on record that I am the one who pushed for a separate account that can be handled by parents for transparency.

3. On the allegation that I went to the Commissioner to ask for an Air ticket, this is false as I never requested for a single ticket from the government , in addition there was no ticket given.

4. On the allegation that the last tournament raised a lot of money and we pocketed and that expenses were amounting to Ksh 5,000, this is false because just to give you a brief of the expenses: venue alone cost us Ksh 14,000, Trophies Over Ksh 16,000, Certificates to all participants over Ksh 4,000 just to mention but a few.

My fellow players, I personally tried to respond to this by directly trying to call Mukabi, but as always the guilt are afraid, he did not receive my call, I was within my rights to call him because I believed that what he had tried to do was to give malice information which is meant to Character assassinate me and to portray me negatively in public. I did not issue any threats since Issuing threat is an of fence and he should report to the police. All I told him which I can confidently repeat it is that I may consider legal redress, I have the whole conversation with Him. I have never responded to previous allegation not that because I am guilt but I was hoping that most of us will be able to differentiate between malice and truth.

Chessmen and ladies, I may not be in office tomorrow, we should not burn bridges as we will need each other in some other areas. Eg. You may need me during transition since I am in charge of youth activities. Mukabi also had said that Larry and myself are doing this for personal gain, it is no secret I am a qualified Fide Instructor ( FI) as well as Fide Arbiter F.A.

It is therefore within my rights to organize events and to train just like in other sports there are coaches and referees who earn their living from there careers of coaching, I am proud to let you know that I earn my living from chess training, I am a professional chess trainer, let us not belittle the sport we passionately love. I will continue to protect my rights as a Kenyan Citizen even if it means Legal redress. Fellow players and stake holders lets sober up in our opinions towards developing this sport and avoid hatred. lets respect FIDE slogan: Gens una sumus: we are one family.