Is it a Transitional or Normalisation Committee for Kenyan football?

Sports CS Amina Mohamed feels the draft constitution and recommendations made by the outgoing FKF Caretaker Committee will improve football standards in the country.

Amina is set to make a major announcement today on the way forward in the Kenyan football as well as name a new team set to take over from the Caretaker whose term expired yesterday.

She will also give an update on the status of next month’s away 2023 AFCON qualifiers match between Harambee Stars and Cameroon.

The Caretaker was installed by the CS on November 11 2021 to manage football affairs for a period of six months after she disbanded Football Kenya Federation over allegations of misappropriation of funds.

What followed was the ratification of FKF’s suspension by world football governing body, Fifa, from all international football activities on March 31 citing government interference.

Fifa said that they will only lift the suspension if the government revokes the appointment of the Caretaker Committee and reopens the doors for the federation’s secretariat at Goal Project, Kasarani.

But according to sources close to the outgoing Caretaker, either a Transitional or Normalisation Committee is likely to be given the final mandate to normalise the situation in the country.

This comes barely two days after the minister received a seven-page report from the Justice (Rtd) Aaron Ringera-led Committee at Kasarani Stadium on Tuesday.

The Caretaker has made a raft of recommendations including the adoption of the FKF amended constitution, handing over of the leagues to a Limited Company, commercialization of football as a sport with the appointment of a director of football and the appointments of coaches, technical persons and match officials to be on clear contract terms among others.

And for Amina, the recommendations and the draft constitution will go a long way in bringing sanity back into the game.

“The draft constitution among other things puts in place measures to protect players and coaches from contractual exploitation. It also places a cap on the term of service of FKF president by proposing a reduction from 3-4 year term to two-year term. That’s in accordance with our own practices. It bars the president and deputy president from being active officials of any club to prevent cases of conflicts of interests,” said Amina.

“For the successes we have witnessed in cricket following the work that was done by the Normalisation Committee, I have confidence and there’s hope for the Kenyan sports sector to grow if the federations streamline their operations, promote accountability and transparency, end corruption within their ranks and show compliance with the rule of law.

“We started with cricket and we are extremely proud of the work you (Caretaker Committee) have done in football and we will go down the line to other federations which we think things are not as they should be.”

Meanwhile, FKF delegates are set to hold a consultative meeting on May 26 to discuss the current state of Kenyan football and chart the way forward.

This will be the second time the delegates will be meeting since Kenya was suspended on February 24. On March 26, the delegates revoked the mandate of NEC for a period of 90 days until NEC members clear their names with relevant government authorities.

Top of the agenda of the meeting will be discussion on the implication of Tuesday’s judgement on the legal matter constitution petition number E473 of 2021; FKF versus Cabinet Secretary, FKF Caretaker Committee and three others as well as reopening of/access to FKF secretariat offices.