FKF wants elections to proceed despite Registrar caution

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is not considering the option of calling off its elections, as advised by the Sports Registrar though the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT).

On Tuesday, SDT postponed the ruling on whether the FKF elections should go on or not, despite being tagged in the advisory letter by the Registrar sent to the federation.

With the letter appeared to add more weight to the case of protestants of the electoral process, SDT Chairperson John Ohaga overlooked it setting December 3 as the ruling day for the case in which the electoral code and composition of the FKF Electoral Board have been challenged by former federation president Sam Nyamweya and  four others.

Former AFC Leopards Chairperson Alex Ole Magelo, former Vihiga County Governor Moses Akaranga, Simon Mburu and Angeline Mwikali are the other challengers, who want the elections stopped to address their grievances.

“It is not proper for FKF to hold elections for County Sports Associations that have not registered in my office and also use non-existent County Sports Associations to vote in officials of Football Kenya Federation,”  the Registrar’s letter read in part.

But Nick Mwendwa, the FKF president, said they will write to the Registrar on Wednesday (today) showing why they elections cannot be cancelled.

In essence, cancelling of the elections on the grounds of the questions raised by the Registrar and the five complainants would mean starting the whole process again afresh. This necessitates convening other National Executive Council (NEC) meetings to propose new electoral code, another FKF AGM to ratify them and fresh appointments to the board.

Consequently, nominations for the various posts to be contested for would start afresh.

“We did pass the electoral code unanimously during the AGM and those complaining were silent all through. They have come to raise questions in the last minute, showing they were not keen on the game’s developments since 2016. This would be a costly process and it would form a bad precedent where regulations and constitution passed by majority members is twisted using courts by malicious parties. Let any serious competitor go to the ground and campaign as we are doing,” Mwendwa told Citizen Digital in a previous interview.

The County elections are set for this Saturday, with Nairobi producing two branches owing to the number of clubs. The presidential elections are then slated for December 7, as per the Electoral Board calendar.

On Tuesday morning, 20 FKF branches supporting the current administration in the umbrella of Team Blue converged in Nairobi to reaffirm their stand on the disputed elections.

Led by FKF Abadares Secretary General James Kamau who is also contesting for Kiambu County chairperson seat, the members underlined their push for the elections to go on as earlier planned.

“We have been the silent majority. We are the ones who run football at the branches level and our say is important at this time that there are court tussles especially on the elections. Those who have gone to court are in the wrong timing as they did not give their views regarding the electoral code which was distributed to the sub-branches and clubs two months before the AGM.

He added: “At that level and in the AGM there was a chance of stopping a section that anyone feels is not healthy but now we are already past that,” Kamau explained.

He noted the move to the court is a motive to invite unwarranted Government interference which could result to heavy FIFA sanctions.

“The idea is to create a parallel football running body so that some of those people challenging the electoral process in court get to the office through backdoor. If this is the motive FIFA is watching because they want the constitution we sent to them honoured. In case of a ban who suffers..?”

Only Mwendwa was nominated for the presidency before the Electoral Board deadline, and only a rule in the favour of the complainants who all eye the seat would stop his election on 7th.

Elections must be done before February 2020, when the four-year tenure of the current administration ends. However, according to FKF Secretary General Barry Otieno, conducting the elections before the close of 2019 would translate to easier planning for the 2020 calendar from the start with the assurance of who runs the office in the entire year.

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FKF elections Sports Registrar

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