FKF Electoral Board unveiled, sets deadline for polls

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Electoral Board aims to conduct the upcoming elections by mid-December. 

Speaking on Monday after they were unveiled at Villa Rosa Kempinski in Nairobi, the board’s chairman, Prof. Hesbon Owilla, said preparations for the much-awaited elections are underway and that the timelines will be released on Wednesday. 

Lawyer Marceline Sande is the board’s Secretary General, while other members are former AFC Leopards chairman, Dan Mule, Communication Consultant, Alfred Ngang’a, and Sports Journalists Association of Kenya (Sjak) president James Waindi. 

“We will have to deliver these elections before the end of this year. We project that before mid-December, we will be done with the elections at all the levels and we will have a new FKF National Executive Committee and the entire FKF team. Hopefully, nothing will destruct us from the timeline that we will release in the next three days,” said Owilla. 

After being proposed by the FKF NEC as stipulated in the 2019/2020 FKF Electoral Code, the board members were ratified by delegates during the FKF Special General Meeting (SGM) at Sports View Hotel in Nairobi on August 24.  

Owilla said the delay in the unveiling of the board was occasioned by the need for all the members to properly understand beforehand the task of conducting the federation’s elections.

In addition to announcing the election dates, the board is expected to publish the amended 2019/20 FKF Electoral Code on its website, which will outline the guidelines for the polls, including candidates' eligibility. 

The board will also release the schedule for candidates to declare their intent to vie for various positions, submit their details, and start campaigns.

Owilla said the board is composed of members of high integrity thus they will deliver credible, free, and fair elections. He also allayed fear to candidates that the polls would not be free and fair since the board had settled on Kandanda House in Nairobi as its headquarters. Kandanda House is the headquarters of the FKF. 

Section “G” of the Establishment and Composition of the Electoral Code states: “The headquarters of the Electoral Board shall be the same as the FKF headquarters, unless the Electoral Board itself decides otherwise.”

Owilla said: “It does not matter where we go, there will still be questions. For any contestant or aspirant outside there, who is thinking of contesting, that space will be a space of elections so it will not be our space." 

"We are not going to ring-fence that space and make it exclusive. It is a space where we will be interacting with all the contestants and it is incumbent upon all those contestants to interact with us and see what it looks like and if they have any issue they can raise it. It is not a space for any individual but to ensure there is a credible election," added the Media and Political Communication scholar. 

Regarding the case filed before the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in Lausanne, Switzerland by FKF presidential hopeful Samuel ‘Kempes’ Owino challenging the amended 2019/2020 Electoral Code, Owilla said he cannot speak about it since the board has yet to be served with any document on the matter from CAS. 

Owino, who is a former Kenya international, has said the changes will lock out many candidates thus attracting litigations.

During the SGM, delegates adopted proposals by Tusker chairman, Charles Gacheru, to have those who have been in active football for two of the last five years qualify to vie for the positions of FKF president, vice president, National Executive Members, and county and branch officials. 

Before the adoption of the amendments, the Electoral Code stipulated that only those who had been active in football for three of the last four years were eligible to vie.

Former FKF boss Sam Nyamweya, Murang’a Seal Vice Chairman Hussein Mohammed, and former Nyanza FKF boss Tom Alila have also declared interest in the top job.

While the reigning FKF president Nick Mwendwa has shown interest in vying for the seat again despite having served for two terms of four years each, he has remained coy on his candidature.