FKF officials urged to come clean on grants meant for teams
Kenyan football has been thrown in a quandary yet again after queries were raised on how Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Nairobi branch spent a donation of about Sh4 million by Nairobi Woman Representative Esther Passaris in aid of clubs.
Barely a week after FKF national body chairman Nick Mwendwa was grilled by Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) sleuths for the fourth time on how the federation utilised Sh244 million meant for Harambee Stars’ preparations for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Egypt, the Nairobi branch mandarins could be headed in the same route.
Yesterday, former branch secretary Steve Ragos gave a damning allegation that Sh4 million was indeed forked out by Passaris in 2018 to facilitate settlement of participation fees of clubs in Nairobi East and West leagues despite the fact that the onus mainly lies with the Constituency Development Fund (CDF).
He claimed none of the 20 regional teams as well as the 80 which participate in the zonal league benefited much from the kitty with most complaining that the Annual General Meeting (AGM), in which they can ordinarily use to air their grievances, have not been held for the past few years.
“Traditionally, the clubs receive subsidies from respective CDF which range from Sh 40,000 to Sh 60,000 depending on their budget to cater for uniforms, balls and transport.
The Sh4 million was meant for the same yet the teams did not receive a cent and I can only take it as embezzlement,” said Ragos.
Launch investigations
He accused top branch officials of playing ping-pong with clubs while calling on the DCI to treat the matter as urgent and launch investigations to bring the culprits to book.
Efforts to contact Passaris to confirm or deny the goodwill were futile as she could not be reached on her mobile phone.
Reached for comment, Nairobi East branch outgoing chairman Michael Ouma refuted the Sh4 million figure, saying what they merely received from Passaris was Sh1.6 million of which was mainly meant to off-set outstanding participation fees clubs owed branches.
In a nutshell, Ouma said out of the amount, Sh700,000 went to Nairobi East account and was later wired to Nairobi West account with the rest (Sh900,000) being used for miscellaneous.
Side shows
Ouma added: “It is not true that we received Sh4 million and I can only take these allegations as sideshows which crop up and especially this time when elections are approaching.
It is also not true that we have not been holding AGM’s yet this is a prerequisite to league promotion and relegation.”
He said this was not the first time the branches were getting support and have been receiving the same from CDF courtesy of various constituencies in Nairobi with the money going for the purpose it was intended for.
Ouma named the constituencies as Makadara, Kasarani, Embakasi South, Kariobangi and Embakasi North.
Nairobi West secretary Caleb Malweyi was non-committal with the actual figure given by Passaris, only saying that clubs were contented with the support given in form of kits and having their participation fee debts paid.
