“Since March this year, people have been asking about a broadcast deal for the FKF Premier League. I kept telling everyone, ‘I am stuck in traffic, but I am on my way. ’ The road has cleared, and I have now stopped to make the biggest announcement for Kenyan football,” Nick Mwendwa , as president of Football Kenya Federation, said on August 31, 2023, at the Boma Inn Hotel in Nairobi during the unveiling of Azam TV as FKF’s broadcast partners.
Mwendwa then taunted the Kenyan Premier League, the previous managers of the country’s top-flight league, and SuperSport, which had been the competition's broadcast partners from 2008 to 2017.
“There were people who were here before us who never announced deals and how much they were worth. We are not like them,” Mwendwa said. “The deal we are signing with Azam TV is seven years long, and it is worth $1 million (about Sh129 million) in the first season, and it will increase by $100,000 (Sh12.9 million) every year until the expiry of the agreement,” Mwendwa added boastfully.
The entire FKF-Azam broadcast rights deal was worth $9.1 million (Sh1.17 billion), but the finer details were never revealed.
“I will not say how much money clubs will receive from this deal today. I am in traffic, and when the road clears, I will stop with another big announcement. However, I want to assure clubs that they will receive more money from this deal than they have ever received in the past. Just wait and see,” Mwendwa said.
Former Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa (left) exchanges documents with Azam TV Chief Operations Officer Yahya Mohammed at Boma Hotel in Nairobi on August 31,2023 after Azam TV was unveiled as the FKF Premier League broadcaster in a seven-year deal.
Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group
That announcement never came, but two years later, Nation Sport can reveal, through multiple interviews with club officials, that teams have been receiving between Sh3 million and Sh4 million per year from the broadcast deal.
That translates to a total annual disbursement of between Sh54m and Sh72m to clubs, representing 41 per cent to 55 per cent of the $1m broadcast rights money in the first year.
This was confirmed by several FKF Premier League club officials Nation Sport contacted, including Gor Mahia treasurer Gerphas Okuku and Mathare United CEO Jecton Obure.
“Disbursement is done in cycles of three or four months,” the officials said.
They confirmed that the amount disbursed to clubs has remained constant since the first year of the deal, despite the announced increment of $100,000 every year.
“This is something I will follow up on. Clubs were not involved in the signing of the deal,” said Obure.
One official of a top club who requested not to be named admitted they were in the dark on the contents of the broadcast deal but added, “My club is content with it. There is never a delay in disbursement,” he said. “Also, under this deal, it is evident that Azam also pays for production costs and other expenses related to stadium hire during matches. That takes a big burden off clubs.”
Reached for comment, Ravi Kumar, the Azam TV Country Head for Kenya, said: “FKF is the right body to comment on that.”
FKF President Hussein Mohammed and the federation’s Secretary General Harold Ndege did not answer calls or respond to text messages over the matter.
Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Hussein Mohammed during a press conference at Nyayo National Stadium in Nairobi on March 25, 2025.
Photo credit: Lucy Wanjiru | Nation Media Group
For instance, in July, the English Premier League shared on its website a report of how much each club earned in the 2024/25 season from the sale of broadcast rights.
League winners Liverpool got the highest payment, £174.9 million (Sh30.1 billion), while Southampton, who finished last, received the least, £109.2 million (Sh18.8 billion)
The 2017 annual report of the Kenyan Premier League, which managed the top-flight league from 2003-2020, shows that the competition’s broadcast rights holder then, SuperSport, gave the KPL Sh124 million to disburse to clubs.
However, unlike Azam's deal with FKF, which is based on the dollar, KPL’s commercial deals with SuperSport were based on the South African Rand. Currency volatilities meant that KPL’s revenue from the deal dropped from a high of Sh151 million in 2015 to Sh124 million in 2017.
“We used to get over Sh10 million per year. There were monthly disbursements of Sh750,000–Sh800,000 on top of a lump sum of Sh2 million given at the start of the year.”
