FKF boss Nick Mwendwa in a landslide win
History was written at the weekend when Nick Mwendwa became the first person to win a second term in a football presidential election.
Previously, occupants of the position such as Sam Nyamweya, Alfred Sambu, Maina Kariuki, Mohammed Hatimy and Peter Kenneth never went beyond their first terms, but on Saturday Mwendwa garnered 77 out of 85 votes to break the jinx.
It was another landslide victory for the 41-year-old administrator who attributes his success to maintaining a close relationship with all football stakeholders to consolidate his support base unconditionally.
“In 2016, I won by 54 votes out of the 78 cast and my closest opponent Ambrose Rachier had 27.
This time I have won by 77 votes out of 85 cast ballots, this clearly shows that the delegates have more confidence in me, better than they did four years ago,” Mwendwa told People Sport.
He added: “It’s all about good politics and I have proved that I am strong in every corner of the country.
With good relationships with the stakeholders, they cannot abandon you in the last minute.
I also managed to avoid internal wrangles in the federation and that really helped me foster the relationship.”
Mwendwa’s closest opponent in the Saturday polls was renowned football administrator Lordvick Aduda who managed five votes, while Hebert Mwachiro had three votes. Boniface Osano and Dan Mulee didn’t have any votes.
“This is like the case with Fifa president Giani Infantino who had opponents when he contested for the Fifa presidency for the first time, but was too strong when he contested for the second term that he went unopposed,” said Mwendwa.
Most competitive
After his feat, Mwendwa is now keen on securing a position at the world football governing council Fifa. Fifa has seven council positions for Africa where two have been set aside for English speaking countries, two for French speaking countries, one automatic slot for the Confederation of African Football (CAF) president, one for an Arabic speaking country and one general slot.
If he is successful in his new venture, it would be the highest representation by a Kenyan at the global body.
“I’ll be going for one of the two slots for the English speaking countries at the Fifa Council. I will partner with both Cosafa and Cecafa to seek their support for the position,” said Mwendwa.
During the Saturday polls, former Nairobi East Branch chairman Michael Ouma beat Tom Alila and Isaac Macharia to be the new National Executive Committee (NEC) representative for Nairobi. Ouma had 59 votes against Alila’s 25, while Macharia had a single vote.
For the Nyanza NEC position, Joseph Andere garnered 79 votes against Laban Jobita’s five, while Bernard Lagat picked 64 votes against Martin Nyongesa’s 21 to be the Upper Rift NEC member. In Eastern Ahmedpadar Dabar managed 82 against Mohamed Ali’s 3.
The women representative position was the most competitive as former Fifa referee Margret Anyango beat Violet Kerubo by a single vote.
Anyango had 43 votes against Kerubo’s 42 while Sally Bolo didn’t get any vote.
Gabriel Mugendi (Coast), Muriithi Nabea (Eastern), Tony Kweya (Western) and Davids Chege (Central) had gone unopposed.
A total of 85 delegates out of 87 took part in the polls. The two who missed were Kakamega Homeboyz representative and Garissa County representative.
