FKF should tolerate alternative voice

Since the elections, Sholei has been viewed as the ‘opposition’ within. This has earned him a sobriquet of a lone ranger within the FKF top brass.

He therefore ought to have known that any reason for getting at him would be God-send. That is why by filing a case in court challenging certain provisions of the draft constitution, he was playing in their hands.

That be as it may, I don’t think removing Sholei from the Federation, and his immediate replacement, is a logical decision.

FKF ought not to have moved with such speed to replace him. Perhaps, they should have summoned him to a kind of a tribunal. They, Sholei and Shikanda, would have answered specific ‘charges’. That way, FKF will absolve itself of any accusations of unfairness. It will have followed due process to its logical conclusion.

This is in the spirit and letter of our new constitution. FKF needs people like Sholei and Shikanda in their rank. People who represent the alternative voice. Every organisation needs such people who see things differently and raise them. Not those who wait for meetings to end and start grumbling.

By announcing that he would not contest his suspension in a court of law, but through arbitration, Sholei is on the right cause.

The FKF elections ended years of wrangling, which stagnated our football to unimaginable levels. This is why we must not go back there. On a not very dissimilar issue, there is simmering battle within the Kenyan Olympic Team Management Committee.

As we speak, one of Athletics Kenya’s top officials, Benjamin Njoga, is facing a potentially embarrassing situation. He is being accused of having given athletes permission to leave camp soon after the June 23 trials.

This is why there were few athletes at State House when the President handed over the flag to the team. He is almost being dropped from the team.

But Njoga, who is the assistant team manager for athletics, acted only after consultation with his seniors, specifically with the team manager Joseph Kinyua.

And it was after a series of events, which led to athletes being given permission and later being recalled, because of official functions that were hastily arranged, which needed their presence.

By which time many of them, being very mobile, had scattered into the countryside.

The pre-Olympic camping in Bristol seems to have brought bad blood within NOCK-AK top ranks and Njoga, who is a senior civil servant, may be the fall guy in this row.

I appeal to officials to resolve these matters amicably so that our team can represent us well in the Olympics. These are the sideshows Sports Minister Dr Paul Otuoma, probably had in mind when he launched the camp in Kasarani on June 24. We must avoid them.

— The writer is The Standard Sports Editor