NEW BRITAIN -

A retired track coach from Central Connecticut State University forced a Kenyan native on the men’s track team to drink blood as a kind of “tribal ritual,” according to a lawsuit filed by the track member this week.

Coach George Kawecki told the athlete, Charles Ngetich, in the fall of 2005 that he had seen a television documentary in which an ethnic group in Kenya drank blood, and Kawecki said he wanted to see Ngetich drink blood too, the lawsuit alleges.

Ngetich names Kawecki, who retired June 1, and CCSU as defendants in the lawsuit, filed Monday in Superior Court in New Britain.

University spokesman Mark McLaughlin said the university is bound by privacy laws and cannot comment on the situation.

“Because of our commitment to diversity at CCSU and to ensuring that it is a welcoming place for all, we are especially pained that we cannot comment on this matter,” McLaughlin saidin a statement.

Ngetich, who had just started attending the university on a full athletic scholarship, assumed the coach was joking and said he did not want to drink blood. Two weeks later, Kawecki approached him with a cup of blood, said he was too thin and demanded that Ngetich drink it.

“Because of the undue influence of Coach Kawecki, plaintiff believed that he had no option but to drink the blood. He did so in the presence of Kawecki and approximately 10 members” of the track team, the lawsuit says.

That incident was the beginning of mocking and negative comments by Kawecki and his teammates regarding Ngetich’s African heritage, the lawsuit claims.

For example, in December 2006, Ngetich and Kawecki approached a team member who had a puppy on a leash. According to the lawsuit, Kawecki pointed to the puppy and asked Ngetich, “How many people can you feed with this?”

When a teammate dropped a hot dog at a cookout, another teammate said, “He’s from Africa — Charles can eat that,” the lawsuit claims.

Because of the incident with the blood and the on-going ridicule by the coach and others,

Ngetich became depressed, the lawsuit said. His athletic and academic performance dropped. He was removed from the men’s track and cross country team and, by the spring of 2008, he lost his scholarship, the lawsuit states.

At the urging of a counselor, Ngetich went to the CCSU Office of Diversity and Equity. In June, he wrote a letter to CCSU President John Miller. Miller refused to acknowledge any wrongdoing on behalf of CCSU or Kawecki, the lawsuit states. Source: HARTFORD COURANT

SEE VIDEO HERE: http://www.wfsb.com/video/20973806/index.html

The sons of a Kenyan woman badly injured in an attack that left her friend dead collected their mother’s nursing certificate at a graduation ceremony yesterday.

Lydiah Munene, 34, remains in intensive care in hospital after being found in her Christchurch home with severe head injuries on Monday night.

Munene’s friend Stephen Mwangi Maina, 39, from Ashburton, was found dead beside her.

Munene’s estranged husband, Samuel Ngumo Njuguna, who flew to Kenya on Sunday after leaving the couple’s two sons with a friend, is sought in connection with the slaying and assault.

Kenyan community spokesman Mathenge Iratho told The Press that Munene was to have graduated from the Christchurch Polytechnic Institute of Technology yesterday. Her sons, aged 13 and 9, received her certificate on her behalf.

“They were very emotional. We are trying to shield the children. They are doing pretty well under the circumstances. They have a lot of support within the community and from police and social workers,” he said.

The children had visited their mother twice in hospital and had “handled it pretty well”, Iratho said.

Maina, who was a freezing worker at a Ashburton meat works, will be farewelled at a service at the Catholic Church, in Ashburton today.

Source: TVNZ