Kenya plays hardball with Fifa – can’t, won’t reinstate Mwendwa
The government has made it clear that it won’t reinstate the disbanded Football Kenya Federation despite the suspension of Kenya by Fifa last Thursday.
Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed in a strongly-worded statement Saturday indicated that Kenya will not be reinstating the FKF Executive Committee and its Secretariat , one of the minimum requirements by FIFA to have the imposed suspension lifted.
Fifa’s decision to suspend Kenya on Thursday followed Amina’s move to disband the Nick Mwendwa-led federation on November 11 last year. Even with Mwendwa stepping aside and his deputy Doris Petra taking over, the CS now opting to look forward rather than backwards.
Firing coaches
The CS accused the disbanded federation of ignoring its stakeholders, discouraging the youth and firing and hiring of coaches in total disregard for signed contracts.
“The decision by the Government of Kenya on November 11, 2021, to disband FKF fully adhered to the Laws of Kenya. It followed a legally prescribed process and had a defined roadmap. The decision was taken after it became crystal clear that the manner in which FKF was managing Kenya’s football growth and development was unsustainable and untenable,” said Amina through the statement.
Amina has prioritised cleaning up the mess in the Kenyan football as per the laws of the land that will culminate in the formation of a normalisation committee whose end goal will be planning for new elections.
Amina maintains that football in Kenya had deteriorated at all levels due to this mismanagement and had led to a public outcry. “The government has a responsibility to its citizenry to act in the public interest at all times.
“The lack of accountability for monies entrusted to it by the government and people of Kenya was raised with FKF on many occasions to no avail. We tried on many occasions to bring the matter which had festered for long to the attention of Fifa with no success as well. It seemed to us at times that Fifa and FKF were reading from the same book,” the statement further indicating Kenya is not likely to soften her stance.
Amina further says the government intends to continue to engage Fifa just as they have been doing previously.
“We intend to keep it informed as we have done until now on the ongoing cases, investigations and the actions that we are taking. We hope Fifa will reciprocate and keep Kenyans informed on actions they intend to take with respect to issues we have raised on suspected misappropriation of their resources,” she added
At the same time, Amina accused Fifa of sidelining the Kenyan government even when they had shown positive developments.
“Fifa showed so much reluctance to engage with the government for good order, for universal principles of accountability and transparency that we were left with no choice than to allow it to manage football as we complied with our laws and demanded accountability for monies entrusted to the Federation for use on our youth.”
