Elections will go on as scheduled, says Mwendwa as he dismisses Registrar’s orders

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa has said the
planned branch election on Saturday will go on scheduled, despite
calls by Registrar of Sports Rose Wasike to stop the polls until the
federation met all the requirements.

“The reason for the cancellation of the elections is non-registration
of county sports associations, who are supposed to elect the officials
of Football Kenya Federation,” stated Ms Wasike in the letter received
at the SDT on 18 November 2019.

It went on: “Please refer to section 47 of the Sports Act which states
that the Sports Registrar should register Sports organisations as a
sports club, county sports association or a national organisation.”

In her letter, Wasike had lamented how Mwendwa had ignored several
summons following her previous letters, to the federation, of 25
October and 1 November 2019.

“Several times I called the chairman of the organization […] to come
to my office for advise on the election procedure before I even wrote
the letter of 25th October 2019 but he never turned up.

“He only turned up on 1st November 2019 after receiving my letter
whereupon he promised to send me a letter with a commitment that you
will cancel the elections scheduled for 23rd November 2019 to allow
time to register county sports associations that will vote officials
of FKF in.”

Mwendwa, however, said the registrar had no mandate to stop the
federation elections, saying her work was just to register.

“The elections are on as planned. The registrar’s concern was that we
have to register our branch officials before we go to polls, no we
have to elect the officials first in the 48 branches on Saturday, then
we register them, because as at now there are no branch officials,”
Mwendwa said.

He added: “The registrar says she has only registered 22 clubs in the
entire country, yet we have more 6,000 clubs and we cannot deny them
their right to elect their leaders. Changing our constitution to be in
line with the Sports Act is a progressive and continuous process and
we would invite Wasike to our next AGM to bring her recommendations
for considerations.”