FKF proposes radical administrative units: Football Association proposes change of administrative units for debate

FOOTBALL KENYA FEDERATION Football Kenya Federation President Nick Mwendwa. [Stafford Ondego/www.sportpicha.co.ke]

The current branches and sub-branches will be scrapped if new proposals in the FA Statutes are adopted on November 18.

The proposed Football Kenya Federation (FKF) constitution seeks to do away with branches as it moves football management to county level.

In place of branches, the document proposes to have 48 counties, with Nairobi having two counties.

The proposed constitution will be discussed during FKF's annual general meeting in Mombasa on November 18.

According to Article 34 of the proposed constitution, only four officials will be elected at county level unlike the current situation where eight officials are elected at the branches.

The officials to be elected are chairman, secretary, woman representative and treasurer.

Four officials

Apart from the four officials, the proposed document suggests that a sub-county representative will sit on the county executive committee.

This effectively does away with sub-branches. Instead, the sub-county representative who sits on the county executive committee will be allowed to form a sub-committee of four people to oversee football at sub-county level.

Former FKF third vice chairman Jacob Odundo praised the proposals to turn branches into counties and insisted that only active branches should be allowed to take part in the general meetings.

“It is a big move towards taking football back to the grassroots and involving the county governments in supporting the sport. However, to ensure that branches are not just as avenues for people to take part in elections, it is important that a clause is inserted that makes it mandatory that only active branches take part in such deliberations,” he said.

Odundo said FKF should demand that branches send their league standings and financial statements before being allowed to participate in the general meetings.

The proposed constitution, which is supposed to come into effect by January next year if delegates pass it, proposes to expand the Electoral College.

Biggest beneficiaries

The biggest beneficiaries of this move are Kenyan Premier League (KPL) and National Super League (NSL) clubs. They will be allowed to elect representatives to the federation’s executive committee.

The current Electoral College has 74 people, but this will rise to 94 as women and Division One clubs get more delegates to vote at the federation's General Assembly.

Another radical proposal is that the vice presidents will now be running mates of the president and will not contest on their own.

Candidates standing for the top post will be required to pick running mates who will automatically assume the position of vice president if the president is elected.

The post of FKF vice president has in the past drawn many candidates and the new proposal is likely to reverse the trend as one will be required to run under a presidential candidate.

Article 36 of the proposed constitution also seeks to expand the composition of the National Executive Committee from the current 10 to 16 posts.

Apart from the existing posts of president, vice president and eight executive committee members, six others have been proposed and include woman representative, KPL and NSL representative, two co-opted members and one regional representative as the vast Rift Valley province will be split into two.