Calls for ‘free’ Football Kenya Federation polls intensify
By Charles Thuku, July 15, 2020
Four Football Kenya Federation (FKF) presidential aspirants, Lodvick Aduda, Nicholas Musonye, Twaha Mbarak and Sammy Sholei are vouching for a directive from government organs to bring sanity in the Kenyan sport.
The four were presenting a petition signed by a total of 5,275 clubs countrywide, which they sent to world football governing body Fifa and copied to Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed. They copied the same document to Parliament and the Registrar of Sports.
Musonye, a former long-serving Council of East and Central Africa Football Association (Cecafa) Secretary General, said that football in the country has been mismanaged to alarming levels and that only injunctions from state apparatus will save the sport from caving in which is occasioned by years of mismanagement by the federation.
“Football in the country has been thrown to the dogs and for this reason we want the government, the ministry of sports and Registrar of Sports who are vital stakeholders to guide us in streamlining the game,” said Musonye.
He said that his heart bleeds when he sees football being used by certain individuals for selfish gains.
He urged the Sports Ministry and the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) to move with speed and form a Normalization Committee due to the rot that has infiltrated the game in the county.
“We are not greedy for football leadership but rather restore sanity in the sport which has the largest following in the country.
A change in the football management is inevitable and we have to have a Normalization Committee whichever way anyone looks at it,” he observed.
He not mince words, saying that they will not take part in a pre-determined exercise by the federation.
“Let it be known to all and sundry that we will not be party to an election that is not free and fair.
We have had enough of mismanagement of the game in the country and it upon the delegates to choose who will take the game to the next level,” said Musonye.
Aduda said they had invited all presidential aspirants including former FKF boss Sam Nyamweya, Herbert Mwachiro and Tom Alila to attend the function, but the trio failed to turn up without explanation.
Mbarak said the stakeholders had sat down and resolved to rectify the glaring mistakes in football mismanagement in the country and especially after the expiry of the term of Nick Mwendwa as FKF president.
“We as stakeholders thank the SDT for ruling that the term of Mwendwa has expired and all we want upon given the mandate to govern the sport is to end the wayward trend in which millions of shillings from the federation’s coffers have been embezzled,” said Mbarak.
Speaking on the same breathe, Sholei said it was a high time football stakeholders elected a visionary leader who had the interest of the game at heart.