Recent events in Kenyan football give full credence to the fact that Football Kenya Federation President Sam Nyamweya and his team have outlived their usefulness. To begin with, FKF has been operating outside the law. The football governing body failed to comply with the Sports Act 2013, which requires that it re-aligns its constitution and regulations to the Act before seeking re-registration. FKF failed to apply for registration despite being granted an extension window mid this year.
At the beginning of their current term, the FKF top leadership suspended officials interested in cleaning up the game, such as Sammy Shollei and Dan Shikanda. They were suspended for initiating a court case in contravention of Fifa statutes, yet FKF recently took KPL to court.
There has been gross mismanagement of funds meant for developing football. Fifa gives FKF $250,000 (Sh23 million) each year, which is never accounted for. Fifa has provided money to pay referees, which did not happen. There have been claims of irregular massive withdrawal of the Fifa disbursements by top FKF officials.
Mismanagement of sponsorship money and money emanating from broadcasting rights generated by the Kenya Premier League has been another cause of great concern. Take, for example, a recent deal for marketing rights that FKF entered into with sports marketing agency MP & Silva of Monaco where local premier league clubs have accused the federation of forging the signatures of their chairmen to get Sh83 million meant for the KPL on behalf of the clubs. Minutes of a non-existent meeting of the KPL in Kakamega on January 30 were fraudulently used to hoodwink MP & Silva into releasing the money, which was withdrawn by a senior FKF official for personal use. The FKF already has an existing similar deal with SuperSport of South Africa.
FKF has alienated sponsors like Safaricom, with allegations that its top leadership has been demanding a 20 per cent cut of all sponsorship money. Youth structures are virtually dead, with major sponsors like Coca-Cola having withdrawn over graft. The same reasons led to the death of the Sh200 million Safaricom-sponsored Sakata soccer tournament. Orange also withdrew from sponsoring the primary schools' tournament due to demands for kickbacks.
Kenyan soccer lovers have witnessed the worst form of running the national soccer teams. We have been humiliated by teams that were hitherto minnows in African football. National team players are owed colossal sums of money in allowances and match-winning bonuses. Foreign-based players labour to get refunds for money spent on air tickets when called for national duty. Some, like first-choice goalkeeper Arnold Origi, have kept off.
Haphazard travel arrangements for the Harambee Stars culminated in the near-disastrous trip to Cape Verde, despite claims by the Sports ministry that it released Sh17 million in good time. This was closely followed by the Ethiopia-Cecafa fiasco, where team manager Willis Waliaula was detained in a hotel. He and goalkeeper trainer Mathew Ottamax Owino subsequently resigned.
With no results to show for it, FKF negotiated a Sh2.5 million a month salary for the Harambee Stars coach. Rumours are rife that the officials get monthly kickbacks from it. Kitting of the national soccer teams is shrouded in financial mystery, while women's football is virtually dead.
The 2013 Cecafa cup hosted by FKF was shambolic. Then we witnessed two parallel premier leagues during the 2015 season – KPL and FKF Premier Leagues. FKF claimed they had a television and title sponsor ready for the league, yet they had not identified them at that point in time. FKF then went ahead to release dishonest statements to the effect that Gor Mahia, AFC Leopards and Muhoroni Youth FC had agreed to play in the FKF-PL, which the clubs disowned. All genuine interested parties acknowledge KPL as the official body to run the Premier League on behalf of FKF.
There has been no development in football in the past five years. Perhaps the only positive aspect in the recent past is the KPL, which FKF has viciously attempted to ruin as well. All major football stakeholders have lost faith in the FKF leadership. They have merely been hanging onto technicalities that are basically rules Fifa and CAF mischievously put in place to protect and keep corrupt officials in office.
Good leadership skills dictate that the moment a leader realises that he has lost the confidence of his subjects and no longer has the moral authority to govern, he needs to leave office as soon as yesterday instead of waiting to be forced out. My take is that the time is up for Nyamweya and his team. They must now leave. Punda amechoka.
The writer, an ardent soccer fan, is a management consultant based in Nairobi.
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