New found unity in Kenyan football

Most contentious issues that threatened to derail the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) annual general meeting were ironed out at yesterday’s meeting in Nairobi.

Intense lobbying preceded the meeting with delegates keen to avoid what happened in Kisii two months ago that led to the calling off of the meeting due to alleged insecurity.

Officials who had been suspended before the meeting received a major reprieve when their bans were lifted, allowing them to contest the forthcoming elections.

The biggest beneficiaries of this amnesty were Hussein Terry, whose life ban was lifted. Terry is the immediate former executive committee member for Coast Province.

Former FKF vice chairman Sammy Sholei also had his six-year suspension lifted as well as Dan Shikanda, who was formerly the FKF Nairobi branch chairman.

Both Shikanda and Sholei did not attend yesterday’s meeting, but Terry, who turned up, expressed delight at the move.

“This is an important day for me and I want to thank the delegates for lifting our suspensions.

“Personally, I was punished for trying to reveal what was wrong in local football. Now that I have the freedom to vie, I want to announce my intention to go for one of the top two seats,” he said.

Another major agenda passed is the decision to re-admit Kenyan Premier League (KPL) as a member of the federation.

The company was kicked out during a Special General Meeting (SGM) at the beginning of the year.

The general assembly further resolved that next year’s top league will have 18 teams up from the current 16, but left it to the federation to decide on the modalities of demotion and promotion as this was a sensitive issue which could not be exhausted.

The matter is likely to be resolved as soon as FKF and KPL sign a memorandum of understanding but, in case this does not happen, then it will be back to the drawing board.

Delegates also passed a resolution to turn counties into branches ahead of this year’s elections. A committee was formed to discuss how best to implement this proposal.

The vast Rift Valley Province was formerly divided into two, meaning that they will now have two national executive committee members when elections are held.

Yesterday’s meeting was the last before elections are held beginning with sub-branches branches on October 29.

This will be followed by the branches on November 5 and then national elections one week later.