Senator Faki tables motion to disband Football Kenya Federation

A fresh showdown looms in local football circles following the tabling of a new motion to disband Football Kenya Federation secretariat.

On Tuesday this week, Mombasa senator Mohamed Faki stood on the floor of the lower house and issued three recommendations, chief among them being the suspension of FKF, and the conducting of fresh elections.

The senator also said there is need for alterations in the National Sports Fund to ensure that monies from the kitty cater only to the sports and arts departments.

Mr Faki also asked the federation to align with both Kenyan and international laws, for accountability purposes.

“I hereby recommend that the current FKF national executive committee is disbanded and subsequently, new elections of the FKF committee are carried out…That the Sports Arts and Development Fund caters for sports and arts exclusively…That through the oversight mandate of the senate, ensure that the CS Sports obeys court orders on FKF and finally, recommends for the alignment of FKF constitution to locals and international sports laws and ratified by Kenya,” Faki told the Senate on Tuesday.

The motion was received by Senate Speaker Amason Kingi, who committed the petition to the committee on Labour and Social Welfare and directed the committee to conduct investigations and report back to the Senate within 60 days.

If the petition sails through, it will be the second time the local football federation secretariat is disbanded within a span of three years. In November 2021, former Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed did the same thing when she installed a caretaker committee to run local football matters.

However, the move attracted a ban from the world football governing body Fifa who barred Kenya from competing in any international matches on February 24. Subsequently, Harambee Stars were disqualified from the 2023 Afcon qualifiers.

At the time, FKF President Nick Mwendwa was also embroiled in a fierce battle to clear his name in court, as he was accused of embezzling public funds worth Sh38 million, among other charges.

The theft case filed against him by Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji was lifted in March this year, paving the way for him to return to Kandanda House.

When current Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba took office in September last year, he allowed Mwendwa and his secretariat back to office, but the court order barring the secretariat from conducting football business was not lifted, and the caretaker committee wasn’t de-gazetted either.

“It means the federation is in office illegally. The High Court declared that former CS Amina Mohamed followed the law in suspending that secretariat. Which law did the current CS use to bring them back?” posed Peter Lisero, a former referee and match commissioner who is also the secretary of the County Football Association, a splinter football body that is duly registered by the sports registrar, but not recognised by Fifa.

It is this association that is driving the motion tabled by Senator Faki on Tuesday, as its members drawn from all 47 counties signed the petition recommending the suspension of the federation and submitted it to the Senate.  

“Now that the petition has been read, the next step is for the Labour and Social Welfare committee, on which matters of youth and sports falls, to summon the petitioners, the Cabinet Secretary, FKF officials and any other stakeholders as they conduct investigations. They will then report back to the senate within 60 days,” Senator Faki told Nation.Africa.

All this comes just eight months ahead of the next FKF elections which are scheduled for March 2024. It also comes at a time the country’s football realm is riddled by many challenges, including lack of funds to support both the top flight and lower tier leagues, and poor performance by national team Harambee Stars who suffered a shock loss to lowly ranked Mauritius last week in a friendly match.

The women’s national teams as well as the junior teams have not been actibely involved in any competitive matches for close to three years now.

It also comes at a time the country’s football is grappling with increased cases of match fixing in all cadres of the league, and a serious case of insufficient funds where most local clubs struggle to raise funds every week to honour their matches.

FKF President Nick Mwendwa is on record saying that winners of the men's top flight league will not receive any cash prize due to lack of sponsors.

“We don’t have any money, all sponsors went away with the previous CS.  Right now our focus is to rebuild and see whether we can do better starting next season,” Mwendwa said in an interview.

A ban could also throw the spanner in the works for Kenya’s ambition to co-host the 2027 Africa Cup of Nations.