BY Afeseh Apong
The Kenyan Ministry of Sports, Culture & Heritage, has told FIFA that the decision by the Government of Kenya on November 11,2021, to disband the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) fully
adhered to the Laws of Kenya, and it follows a legally prescribed process and had a defined roadmap.
The World football governing body FIFA, recently suspended Kenya indefinitely from all football related activities, for third_party interference.
The Kenyan government had dissolved the Football federation due to a reported ‘massive embezzlement’ of funds. The FA president Nick Mwendwa was arrested and taken to court, and a caretaker Committee was formed which has been running activities since then.
On Thursday February 24, 2022, FIFA announced it has suspended Kenya indefinitely, a decision which was highly welcomed by many Kenyans.
“The Kenyan FA led by a corrupt Nick Mwendwa and his CEO Barry Otieno have looted the FA dry. Favouritism, nepotism and massive corruption, Kenyans are tired of them and need fresh leaders. We accept the ban and are ready to put our house in order,” Kenyan sports journalist, Austin Oduor, Sokafrika Reports Chief Editor told kick442.com shortly after FIFA’s ban on Thursday.
Now, a Release issued on Saturday February 26, by Amina Mohamed, Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Heritage and Culture of Kenya, has told FIFA that the decision from the Kenyan government to dissolved the Football federation in November last year, “was taken after it became crystal clear that the manner in which FKF was
managing Kenya’s football growth and development was unsustainable and untenable.”
Amina Mohamed went further to say that it seems to them as if FIFA and FKF were reading from the same book.
“The lack of accountability for monies entrusted to it by the government and people of Kenya was raised with FKF on many occasions to no avail. We tried on many occasions to bring the matter which had festered for long to the attention of FIFA with no success
as well. It seemed to us at times that FIFA and FKF were reading from the same book. Football in Kenya had deteriorated at all levels due to this mismanagement and had led to a public outcry. The Government has a responsibility to its citizenry to act in the public interest at all times,” stated the release from the ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage.
The release continued;
“The approach taken by FKF to become a law unto themselves and ignore its stakeholders, discourage our youth and makes it clear that they had neither talent nor a future in football, firing and hiring of coaches in total disregard for signed contracts and the inherent conflict of interest that was always present, demanded action from somewhere and the Registrar took action anchored on our laws.
“Apparently, FIFA does not relate to governments and stakeholders. It considers them a nuisance. FIFA however, still expects the same governments and stakeholders to fund
football with no transparency and/or accountability in total disregard for national laws, institutions, values and practices.
“The government tried unsuccessfully to communicate with FIFA even with respect to resources that FIFA and CAF quietly gives federations and which we suspected were not used as intended to no avail. It is now even suspected that in some cases there was
double payment. We paid for activities and services that had already been paid for by CAF.
“FIFA, in fact, in our case and many others, showed so much reluctance to engage with government, for good order, for universal principles of accountability and transparency
that we were left with no choice than to allow it to manage football as we complied with our laws and demanded accountability for monies entrusted to the Federation for use on our youth. We hope that CAF will reconsider its decision on our Harambee Starlets who
had fully prepared for the AWCON Qualifiers by listening to voices of those who have mismanaged football.
“The Caretaker Committee that I legally established and that is fully recognized by our laws, has been hard at work. They have organized matches between our team and Uganda, Rwanda and Egypt and paid allowances on time, and leveled the playing field between
male and female referees and players. It needs to be celebrated.
“We expected FIFA to take notice of all the positive developments taking place, allow us to carry on with our legally prescribed mandate to put our own house in order and then work with us on normalization and fresh elections. We instead learnt through the media
of a suspension based on government interference.”
“We will continue cleaning up, putting systems of accountability in place as well as a draft constitution that is fully aligned to the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the FIFA statute and to
good order and globally recognized values.”
“We intend at the same time to engage FIFA as we have continued doing over the last three and a half months. We intend to keep it informed as we have done until now on the going cases, investigations and the actions that we are taking. We hope FIFA will reciprocate and keep Kenyans informed on actions they intend to take with respect to issues we have raised on suspected misappropriation of their resources.
FIFA is yet to react on the recent outing from the ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage, but the recent suspension meted on Kenya by FIFA, means that the Football Kenya Federation (FKF), loses all its membership rights as of 24 February 2022 till further notice. Therefore FKF clubs and national teams will no longer take part in international competitions until the suspension is lifted. This also means that neither the FKF nor any of its members or officials may benefit from any development programmes, courses or training from FIFA and/or CAF.
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