Football caretaker committee issues KSH875M budget to run sport for 6 month
Taxpayers should be prepared to cough up a whopping Ksh875 million which is the budget set by the government to facilitate the recently appointed Caretaker Committee mandated by Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed to run football in the country for the next six months after she disbanded Football Kenya Federation (FKF) almost a fort night ago.
A member of the committee on Friday mistakenly posted the budget in a social media group before pulling it down and if it turns out to be the final budget, then fundamentally, the mid-boggling figure towards the caretaker committee that will serve for six months pending fresh elections is almost three times what the embattled federation led by Nick Mwendwa claimed to have received from the government in the last three years towards the operations of its activities.
Ironically, Mwendwa, who is facing conviction in court over failure to account for Ksh512 million he allegedly received from the government towards football development in the country, has thrown down the gauntlet, claiming that the federation only received a total of Ksh354 million during the specified period.
Leaked budget
In the statistics that are bound to send tongues wagging following a leaked budget, a total of Ksh100 million out of the amount is meant as honoraria for the committee and its secretariat led by retired judge Aaron Ringera and television journalist Linda Ogutu respectively.
According to sources within the CS, who formed the committee following widespread claims of financial impropriety by the federation, has no qualms in the government spending a substantial amount of money to weed out corrupt officials in the federation, a Fifa ban on the country notwithstanding.
According to those close to her, Mohammed is an extrovert personality who is merely acting on the whims of the majority following the alleged disturbing artifice by the federation.
Mohammed, a replacement of Rashid Echesa who operated the docket with bare knuckles, is said to be willing to spend nearly Ksh900million of taxpayers’ money, in just under six months to “clean up” the rot at FKF even as questions have been raised on the integrity of the persons she appointed in the committee to serve in the duration.
A further perusal in the budgetary figures indicates that Ksh20 million has been set aside for social media management besides the Ksh10 million the committee shall spend on a retreat ostensibly to discuss crucial matters including the amendment of the contentious FKF constitution.
Further, Ksh33 million is said to be earmarked for acquisition of high end vehicles and Ksh12 million for purchase of stationary besides Ksh20 million for tea and refreshments.
According to the budget, it will cost taxpayers a whooping Ksh100million to hold the federation’s elections even as other miscellaneous expenses were calculated totalling to over Ksh800 million.
On the flip side, each of the Kenyan Premier League, National Super League (NSL) and Women Premier League clubs will each receive an average of Ksh400,000 per month.
Curiously, this is less than 10 percent of the total committee’s budget even as stakeholders question the rationale of the expenditure.
