Kenya ordered to pay Bobby Williamson Sh55m

Jacob Icia

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) has been ordered to pay former Harambee Stars coach Bobby Williamson 55 million shillings for wrongful termination following his after winning a petition against his sacking in 2016.

The amount awarded includes compensation for unlawful termination of services and payments due for the remainder of his contract and damages, FKF President Nick Mwendwa said on Friday morning.

Earlier this month, FKF lost its case at the Court of Arbitration for Sport against another former coach Adel Amrouche and was given up to last week on Saturday to pay him Sh108m.

Federation boss Nick Mwendwa has told Citizen TV he will appeal against the ruling.

“We have this morning been ordered to pay Williamson 55 million shillings, but we will appeal because we cannot just give up without seeking reprieve at a higher level. If eventually we won’t win the case, we have already advised the Ministry of Sports to pay as this is one way of dealing with some of the issues we inherited from the past regime once and for all,” Mwendwa averred.

Mwendwa, who is seeking re-election to the post in the December 7 polls, has however revealed the mitigation measures they have laid down to avoid the recurring curse of hefty penalties imposed on them from illegal termination of coaches contracts.

“The question is how we have dealt with this for the future. Both Williamson and Amrouche wrangled with the federation before we came in and the issue of poorly thought contracts put the federation in a fix.

“We will never give a coach a fixed contract, so that the notice period for each either party is limited to two months. That means, if we terminate a coaches’ contract, we will only pay the only two months and they also pay us the value of two months too in case they terminate their contracts prematurely.

According to Mwendwa, had Amroche accepted his job offer immediately after taking over, the case would not have gone all the way.

“People did not understand why I was referring to Okumbi (Stanley) as a first team coach. I wanted Amrouche to agree to work with us, but to first to withdraw his case. He wanted the job but still didn’t want withdraw. We had no option but to fight in court,” he offered.

In the same vein, Mwendwa revealed that immediate former Harambee Stars coach Sebastien Migne agreed to be paid until March next year, when he parted ways with FKF soon after elimination from 2020 African Nations Champions (CHAN) qualifiers.

“In the case of Migne, we had mutual agreement to avoid such cases again. We have learnt our lessons. He keeps his house allowance and the salary until March 2020, but he will lose the privileges as soon as he gets employment elsewhere. Just the other day I received a call from a party interested in appointing him, so we could soon be off the hook as I quickly gave the go ahead,” revealed Mwendwa.

The penalty comes at a time the FKF has admitted to being overwhelmed by debts, including player allowances and service providers ranging from hotel to flight airlines.