FKF suspends five referees for suspected match manipulation

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on Friday cracked the whip announcing to have provisionally suspended five Premier League referees, alleged to be involved in match manipulation.

Fifa referee Raymond Onyango, Samuel Mwaura, Isaac Memusi, Collins Opiyo and Japheth Juma are the victims of the latest match fixing claims in the local league.

In a statement, FKF said the move was a precautionary measure and in the interest of safe-guarding the integrity of its leagues and competitions.

“Moreover, the federation’s Integrity Department, with the assistance of Fifa, has initiated preliminary investigations against the said individuals, with a view of establishing their involvement, if any, in the said match manipulation practices,” read the statement, signed by FKF CEO Barry Otieno.

The federation was also quick to dispel fears that the FKF-PL has been intruded by match fixers.

“Even so, the federation remains confident on the integrity of the FKF-PL and has with the assistance of Fifa established and consistently continues to up-date, its match manipulation detection platform, with a view of protecting and safeguarding the integrity of all its competitions, against global match fixers.”

Protests over the rise of suspect decisions from match officials in the top league have been on the rise in the recent past, pressure on the federation to respond.

“I’m a professional coach, I have professional players but unfortunately we don’t have professional referees here,” lamented AFC Leopards head coach Patrick Aussems in a recent match.

Zoo Kericho was earlier in the season expelled from the league on the same grounds.