Pressure mounts on FKF over Sh244 million AFCON cash

FKF President Nick Mwendwa and Deputy President FKF Doris Petra briefing the media at Hotel Safari Park on the latest football status in Kenya on Tuesday, Oct 29, 2019. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

Pressure continues to mount on Football Kenya Federation to account for the Sh244 million the government advanced it for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations finals in Egypt.

Yesterday morning, Kandanda House at Kasarani was a beehive of activity as Sports Fund officials from the Ministry of Sports went in to scrutinise FKF’s books.

Harambee Stars captain Victor Wanyama also came out to clarify he had bought himself the ticket for their final Group F qualifying match against Ghana on March 23 in Accra and that he was not in Nairobi for the reverse fixture.

The Tottenham Hotspurs midfielder is currently in Cairo with the national team ahead of Thursday’s 2021 AFCON qualifier against hosts Egypt said: “We have been paid except for Sh250,000 which is due. As for the Sh1 million ticket, I haven’t seen it because I was not in Kenya for the first leg clash.”

This is after an invoice surfaced showing that the federation had purchased the Tottenham Hotspurs midfielder a Sh1.036 million return ticket London-Nairobi-London.

But FKF president Nick Mwendwa admitted that his federation owes Wanyama some money after he decided to buy a direct ticket to London after the Ghana game instead of using the initial Nairobi-London route.

“We had bought Victor a ticket from London-Nairobi-Accra and vice versa, but after the Ghana game, he decided to go to London directly. So, after negotiations and being our captain we asked him to buy his own direct ticket and bring the receipts for reimbursement. We will pay him the money once we get the receipts,” said Mwendwa.

Meanwhile, at the FKF headquarters officials from the Directorate of Criminal Investigation visited the premises after Sports Fund officials had called in. It was not immediately clear what their mission was.

This comes after the Ministry expressed concerns over the use of the Sh244 million government funding at the 2019 Africa Nations Cup finals in Egypt.

The Sports Fund officials were led by the Fund Chief Executive officer Mark Wambugu. The money was meant for national team Harambee Stars’ preparation and participation at the continental showpiece held in June-July.

FKF president Mwendwa said there was nothing sinister in the visit as both parties had agreed on the meeting.

“As for now, there is no query they have raised about our expenditures. We had agreed with the Sports Fund officials that they will visit us on November 11 and 19. The CEO of Sports Fund together with his officials came yesterday and we expect them back on Thursday,” said Mwendwa.

“This is a routine visit by the Fund officials as they first came to our offices in July.  We were among the first beneficiary of the Sports Fund so they need to continue coming to share the notes with us. “We sent them our expenditure books and they didn’t respond for months. They later wrote to us that their officials will come to peruse through our documents.”