Dubbed “The Football
Debate”, national broadcaster, NTV hosted aspiring candidates for Football
Kenya Federation (FKF) Presidency on live television interview on Wednesday
evening. Sammy Shollei, SsamiAina, Nick Mwendwa, Gor Ssemelang’o and Ambrose
Rachier engaged each other and the entire nation on solutions they offer to
long-suffering Kenyan soccer if elected to office, on December 14.
Conspicuously missing was embattled FKF President, Sammy Myamweya; the name
that stirs bad taste in the mouths of football fans across the nation. Much of
the responses the candidates gave offered vague solution, much to the chagrin
of Kenyans who followed the show. That’s beside the point, Kenyan football has
key issues that need urgent solutions.
Kenyan under age teams rarely
play in continental championships, with the CAF Under-17 and Under-23
championships and the Olympics being such examples. We do not qualify for the
simple reason that we lack structures at both national and grassroots levels to
nature talents progressively through the ranks to enable such feats. We need a
national office that will decentralize football from Nairobi and spread it
across the country, to as far as Turkana County, to enable identification of young
talents and nature them.
The issue of unpaid
allowances for Harambee Stars, Harambee Starlets, and horribly bungled
preparations in the run-up to tough FIFA and CAF assignments is so dominant,
each year. Barely three weeks ago, Harambee Stars landed in Cape Verde about
two hours before the return match of Russia 2018 pre-qualifier, against the
hosts, after a grueling 18 hours in a chartered plane! This is how worst it can
get for any national team, shameful and despicable. On numerous occasions, our
foreign-based players have had to pay for their tickets to come for national
duty! Absurd it sounds but to the current Nyamweya-led office, this is a norm! We
need an office that cares for the national teams, and accords them dignified
treatment that befits a national team.
Coincidentally, after
Nyamweya’s election into office in 2011, CocaCola developed cold feet and
stopped sponsoring the great yearly CocaCola Under-17 championships that were
spread all over Kenya. Now that was a huge blow to the young talents of this
nation. The global giant beverage manufacturers paint the grim picture of how
the Corporate world is scared of the Football Kenya Federation akin to a
plague! Simply put, trivial politics, sheer incompetence, stinking corruption
and unprecedented misappropriation of funds at FKF have seen corporates like Coca
Cola and others shun Kenyan football. We need an office that brings with it
accountability for every cent, proper use of funds for the right and intended
projects and largely opens its books to the public and corporates for scrutiny,
in order to woo back the sponsors to Kenyan soccer. The current office under
Nyamweya has miserably failed in this endeavor and intentionally so!
The current office has
notoriously been embroiled in fights with Kenya Premier League (KPL) Limited,
and unfair treatment and favoring of clubs over others has dominated the pages
more than the action itself. We all know that there are two elite leagues
currently, FKF Premier League and the KPL League. The fight for control of
soccer and also relegation and promotion of clubs in the 2014 Season led to
this. We need to see harmony return to Kenyan soccer. The sad issue of
referees’ payment nearly interrupted the FKF Premier League, and referees had
to go for periods without pay.
As football-mad nation,
we need to see proper and accountable use football development funds that come
from FIFA House in Zurich each year, the FIFAGoal Project and other funds. We
need to know how these funds are used and hold the national office to account.
Kenyans are tired of the constant politics that emanate from FKF office, and an
end to the intolerance meted out to officials with differing opinions, as was
the sad case with former Vice President, Sammy Shollei and Nairobi Branch
Chairman, Dan Shikanda. We need a tolerant and progressive house at FKF. Kenyan
football is crying for change that the current office under Sammy Nyamweya has
failed to bring.
As the countrywide
sub-branch elections take place on Friday, to elect officials who will decide
the ballot on December 14 in the national elections, the delegates responsible
have a huge responsibility in their hands. They owe it to current and future
football generations to do just and vote in change.
A clear plea to the
delegates, “Kenyan football has bled for years, and in your minds and hearts
lies the respite, do justice to Kenyan soccer. You owe it to footballers and
its fans all over the country who have suffered for long”.
