The controversy around the Football Kenya Federation elections has taken another twist, this time a trajectory which could replay the events witnessed in Switzerland in recent weeks following theresignation of Attorney General Michael Lauber.
This is after the Electoral Board, citing a directive from FIFA’s Member Associations Chief Officer Veron Motsengo-Omba of 5 August 2020, has issued a new electo Al roadmap that will culminate with the national polls on 17 October.
According to Motsengo-Omba, the elections are to start from the branches
for the sake of peace, a position that agrees with the decision of the Sports Disputes Tribunal in SDT 3 & 5 delivered on 17 March 2020.
However, in the same letter, there is a stark contradiction on the fate of the electoral code.
It is this contradiction that exposes the FIFA conspiracy to violate Kenyan law by how selectively they want to comply with a substantive decision of a legally-established sports disputes tribunal with jurisdiction to hear football disputes.
A section of stakeholders and aspirants in the elections have rubbished the move by the Kentice Tikolo-led board to unilaterally unveil the roadmap, coming just after a leaked audio of Nick Mwendwa made damning revelations on what could be the grand scheme to manipulate the process ostensibly to have Mwendwa remain in office for a further four years.
The integrity of the process has been called to question for the simple reason that what Tikolo announced everything Mwendwa said in the leaked audio during a meeting with his loyalists hardly a
fortnight ago.
In the audio Mwendwa was heard reassuring his loyalists that the voters register and the code will remain unchanged as well as guaranteeing that those whose nominations had been processed for the
nullified elections will not be subjected to fresh applications and neither would they pay any fees.
Tikolo’s announcement was a reading from Mwendwa’s exact script.
The roadmap, as announced by the EB, has introduced amendments to eligibility criteria and the questions on the legality of such a move are only but legitimate because the board has Nonsuch power as to amend the elections code, just like it cannot adjust the calendar in the absence of a substantive leadership of the federation.
The only way to appease the players in this contest is to make the process inclusive so that there is consensus by stakeholders, otherwise the entire process will not be seen to be free or fair.
That the EB is now being directed to defy the ruling of the SDT which cited flouting of fundamental provisions of the Constitution of Kenya 2010 reeks of the same filth that is now the subject of criminal investigations against FIFA boss Gianni Infantino and the now immunity-stripped Lauber.
The script that is playing out is that FKF mandarins are using the letter from FIFA to push Tikolo’s board into breaking the law and as such she is being called upon to be wary of this scheme to ultimately throw
her under the bus and take a higher legal and moral ground to save her reputation and those of her colleagues at the board.
Otherwise when the slow wheels of Kenyan law will start to slowly grind
towards justice, she will be on their chopping board long before Mwendwa or Motsengo-Omba meet their fate before justice because they would have used her to continue with their grand scheme of looting for a further four years, a fact that would give them substancial shielding albeit temporary but fate would have been sealed.
