Not yet Uhuru for Kenyan football as delegates revoke NEC’s mandate

The meeting comes barely five months after Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed disbanded the federation on November 11 2021 over allegations of misappropriation of funds and installed a Caretaker Committee to manage football matters for a period of six months.

Though questions were raised over the manner in which the SGM was called, and the eligibility of those who attended, Robert Macharia (the nominated chair of the meeting) insisted the members have exercised their FKF constitutional rights to try and resolve the current impasse in the game.

He said the resolutions will be forwarded to FKF General Secretary Barry Otieno to convene an elective SGM for purposes of replacing the disbanded NEC.

“We were able to get a quorum for the meeting as required by the FKF constitution. We have invoked article 24 (o) of the FKF constitution and revoked the mandate granted by the constitution to NEC members because since the appointment of the Caretaker Committee, NEC members have not been able to exercise their powers,” said Macharia

“So, the General Assembly saw it fit that those powers should be exercised by the supreme authority of the FKF. And therefore we have resolved to forward these resolutions to FKF General Secretary to convene a meeting for purposes of electing people who will exercise this mandate until the impasse between the minister and the elected NEC is resolved.

“The mandate has been revoked for 90 days. If there will be a resolution between the government, Fifa and NEC then automatically the mandate will go back to the rightful office holders.”

Asked if they are worried about the illegalities surrounding the meeting, Macharia said: “We have not removed people from office, but just used our powers to remove the mandate from one committee to another. It’s not about never giving some people a hearing, but we have discussed and resolved that indeed they are not able to exercise those powers.

“But we couldn’t do an election of people in this meeting to exercise some powers. That can only be done by a meeting that has been properly constituted. That’s why we have resolved for the GS to convene a meeting for the delegates again to appoint or nominate people who are going to temporarily exercise these powers.

“We have various bodies under the FKF constitution, but the only body that’s not able to exercise its right now is the NEC. We can’t continue operating in a vacuum.”

On Friday, acting FKF president Doris Petra had termed the SGM illegal saying it doesn’t meet the constitutional threshold.

“We have not sanctioned the purported SGM and we are not part of it. I don’t think it will have any legal impact because of the procedures followed. I even don’t know who is going to conduct it because as per FKF constitution it is the president who is supposed to chair such a meeting,” said Petra.