FKF AGM: WERE THERE ILLEGAL GUNS? Claims of guns in wrong hands emerge days after botched football meeting

FKF failed AGM.
FKF president Sam Nyamweya leaves the venue at Sameta Lodge in Kisii county on June 26,2015 after the organization's AGM failed to take off when some people who claimed to be delegates forced their way into the venue. The president cited in security as a threat to their meeting. (Photo: Denish Ochieng/ Standard)

Three days after the aborted Football Kenya Federation’s General Assembly at Sameta Lodge in Kisii, scary details of presence of guns for hire at the venue are emerging.

FKF President Sam Nyamweya cancelled the meeting citing breach of security when more than 400 people turned up at the venue where only 78 delegates were expected.

And yesterday, FeverPitch learnt youth from Nairobi loosely called Men-In-Black after the gang that disrupted Orange Democratic Movement party polls at Kasarani and a rag-tag vigilante group from Kisumu - China Boys - was at the beck and call of the football protagonists last Friday.

Then there were the Kenya Police.

Although area OCPD Richard Muguai disputed FKF’s assertions there was breach of peace, an insider who was driving one of the football administrator’s car told FeverPitch in confidence, he was shown one of six pistols by a security man picked from Bomet.

“Tension was high ahead of the FKF AGM at Sameta Lodge. And both parties did make their own parallel security arrangements. There were Men in Black and one of the branch chairmen had two in his car to accord him security,” the source said.

The source claimed the police appeared caught in between the rival gangs, which were taking orders from their respective bosses.

On the eve of the AGM, KPL clubs and rebel FKF branch officials who arrived in Kisumu on Wednesday evening, held a meeting to come up with a common stand on the issues in the agenda before travelling to Kisii with their security in tow.

FKF loyalists, on the other hand, remained in Nairobi and travelled to Kisii on Thursday, complete with their private security detail.

FKF president Nyamweya acknowledged they set aside Sh200,000 for security operations, which he said was to cater for police logistics as is the norm with such meetings.

“However, we had our own security from Nairobi, who were to liaise with the police. And they are known to everyone.

“If there were other guns in the hands of wrong people, I don’t know. But given the prevailing tension on the day, I used my wisdom and discretion to call off the meeting because there were people we could not account for,” Nyamweya said.

Immediately after AGM was called off, FKF released a statement condemning the rebel group of, “their scheme which was hatched in Kisumu,” as an act of cowardice and directly attacked an aspirant, Nick Mwendwa and some KPL officials, who they said, “had gone to great lengths of even flying them to Kisumu from different parts of the country in an effort to cause violence.”

But yesterday, Mwendwa dismissed the claims as utter rubbish for he was not Kisii.

“Just because I have rejected his (Nyamweya’s) leadership? Just because I am challenging him? If there is any evidence suggesting some people were hired I will be prepared to listen,” Mwenda told FeverPitch.

FKF goes to the polls early November and the stakes are heightening in the bid to control the unregulated multi-million-shilling local football industry.

Multiple sources reveal well-oiled logistics by either side of the local football divide to ensure they gain an upper hand in the electoral process via AGM resolutions.

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