Electoral Board does not have cash to hold Ingwe polls

The AFC Leopards elections scheduled for Sunday have hit a snag after the club’s Electoral Board declared it does not have enough funds to conduct the exercise as required by the Independent Electoral Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

At the same time, three of the 30 candidates who had offered themselves to vie for positions; Joshua Asige, Stanslaus Mukobero and Athanas Obango Abala were declared unfit to run for failing to present required documentation to the Board for vetting.

Gitoka, Kangemi Social Hall and Nakuru branches will also be barred from the exercise for the same reasons out of 65.

Asige was vying for the Vice-Chairman’s position while Mukobero and Obango were contesting Executive Members’ positions.

Speaking to the press in Nairobi on Monday, Electoral Board Secretary Irene Tindi extended the begging bowl to stakeholders including governing body, Football Kenya Federation, sponsors and other benefactors to bridge the Ksh8m budget required for the exercise.

“As it stands we have collected Ksh2.5m from member’s registration and candidate’s nomination fees as well as fundraisers but we are nowhere close to the money required by IEBC to conduct the elections.

“We contacted a few leaders from the greater western region and some pledged to donate money to the cause but so far none has reached back to us. We have also written to our title sponsors asking them to help us clear the deficit and we are waiting for their response,” she declared.

During the vetting process, the board produced a register of 5,294 up from 4,900 members submitted to them by the Interim Management Committee (IMC).

“Some of the factors that led to the increase were the omission of members who were not affiliated to any of the branches which the Board was quick to correct. In some cases, names had been excluded due to irregularities in details which we also rectified,” Chairman Elias Masika explained.

“We liaised with the various branches while verifying the list and it helped as we were able to aid some of the individuals who were crying foul that their names were not on the list and they had paid the mandatory Ksh500,” he added.

The board also noted anomalies in a few of the branches like Kisumu where officials presented falsified bank statements and it had to bar them from taking part in the elections.

Candidates will vie for the Chairman, Deputy Chairman, Secretary General, Deputy Secretary General, Organizing Secretary, Treasurer and Executive Committee Member positions.

IMC co-chairmen Dan Mule and Matthews Opwora, former FKF vice president Robert Asembo and Mombasa Branch chairman Maurice Amahwa will battle it out for the top seat while Lawrence Githinji and Felix Ikahutku will go head to head for the Deputy Chairman slot.

Noah Wanyama, Timothy Muteshi and Gilbert Selebwa will compete for the Organising Secretary position while Oscar Mafunga, Ronald Mukoya Namai and Douglas Simiyu will tussle for the Secretary General post.