Sports Disputes Tribunal allowed to continue with cases against federation
Nairobi, Thursday
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has been dealt a massive blow after a Mombasa court ruled that the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) has jurisdiction to determine sporting matters and cases against the federation.
The High Court had temporarily barred the tribunal from entertaining any proceedings against the FKF until a petition before it is heard and determined.
The petition was filed by FKF Coast National Executive Committee members Gabriel Mghendi and Lilian Nadundu as the first and second petitioners respectively.
The petitioners were to file their submissions on June 19 with tFKF as he first interested party ordered to file their submissions by June 25.
Yesterday, judge Mugure Thandi ruled the SDT has the mandate to determine sports cases including those regarding FKF.
Initially, the ruling regarded the federation was under stay orders, but from Thursday’s ruling, the stay orders have been vacated with the Mombasa case now transferred to Nairobi.
SDT was forced to postpone the KPL vs FKF ruling regarding the annulment of the Kenyan Premier League (KPL).
FKF cancelled the top-tier league on April 30 and crowned Gor Mahia in the process. However, the league managers were not happy with the move and after trying to engage the federation in vain, they raised the matter with the tribunal in conjunction with Chemelil Sugar.
Submissions were made on June 12, with chairman John Ohaga setting the end of June as the day for the ruling. The SDT twice cancelled the FKF elections citing failure to meet set standards.
A couple of weeks ago, the incumbent Nick Mwendwa hit at Tribunal Chairman Ohaga stating he should stop interfering with federation business.
