By Gilbert Wandera
Football Kenya Federation ( FKF) on Tuesday fired the entire Harambee Stars technical bench after a string of poor results.
The federation removed Francis Kimanzi as head coach and appointed him the new technical director, while his assistants Francis Barasa and Yussuf Chipo were sent home. FKF also moved Patrick Naggi to the new position of Executive Officer.
FKF chairman Sam Nyamweya said the federation is still consulting on the position of head coach and will make an announcement on the same later.
“We have decided to give Kimanzi new responsibility which comes with bigger requirements,” he said.
Meanwhile, Kimanzi insists lessons learnt from a disastrous World Cup and Africa Cup of Nations campaign should be the main focus, not calls. Little did he know that he was to be fired.
Kimanzi, who spoke upon the team’s arrival from Togo on Tuesday morning, defended his fielding insisting he used the best players available.
Went down
Stars lost 1-0 to Namibia in a World Cup qualifier and went down by a similar margin to Togo in a 2013 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier on Sunday.
“We have learnt some great lessons from this two losses and one of them is the need to do everything possible and win your home matches. It is obvious to us about the difficulty of winning or even collecting a point away,” he said.
Kimanzi also blamed poor officiating during the loss to Togo claiming that the referee was biased in most of his decisions and does not regret being sent off in the second half.
Heavy criticism
