We need to put our house in order once and for all, says Mbarak
The football family needs to look at itself in the mirror and ask the hard questions as to why issues of governance have ended up attracting criminal investigators, former Football Kenya Federation (FKF) vice-president Twaha Mbarak has said.
Citing the FKF elections, twice nullified by the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT), Twaha said the problem is self-inflicted because individuals in the football family have pursued selfish interests instead of common good.
Twaha spoke yesterday after the Sports Disputes Tribunal threw out three applications that were lodged against FKF, awarding the federation a crucial vote of confidence.
FKF had been put on the spot over compliance to SDT orders, with the National Executive Council members accused of continuing to occupy office illegally beyond their term and the misuse of federation assets.
The challengers, however, got something mild to smile about after tribunal chairman John Ohaga directed his secretary to organise for full authentication and investigation of a controversial letter allegedly written by FKF Chief Executive Barry Otieno on March 22 to FIFA which undermined the SDT. Ohaga contended that since Otieno denied knowledge of the same then it was difficult to prosecute the matter which otherwise could put FKF in hot soup.
“After the hearing on assessment of compliance on April 21 following our ruling on March 17, we find as a panel that the applications lack merit because of failure by the challengers to put across proper evidence.,” observed Ohaga.
Grow the game
“We need to look at ourselves in the mirror, ask ourselves what if we did the right thing grow the game and in the end football will give us back the fruits the game has given to other countries,” Twaha said yesterday.
“We missed the opportunity in 2004, 2011 and 2016 to put in place fundamental structures of governance, which is now being reflected in 2020,” Twaha lamented.
“Every time we have gone into elections we talk big about the need for change yet if you look at the previous office, most if not all those people were in office across the past regimes.
