Former Harambee Stars coach Engin Firat has revealed he intends to authorise his lawyer to pursue the matter involving his unpaid salary by the Football Kenya Federation with FIFA.
The former Moldova tactician said there was no response yet and that the situation will now get even worse.
“Until now there is nothing from FKF side, nothing, no answer, no offer, no nothing, nothing, nothing, nothing, and I gave it all to my agent so I think now at this moment, I need only to give authorization to the lawyer and then it will go like these because it must be done by the lawyer and I see there is no movement in Kenya,” Firat told flashscore.
The 54-year old had given FKF a 14-day ultimatum to clear his accrued salary amounting to KSh75 million.
The demand notice was sent to the new FKF boss Hussein Mohammed, just two days after the Turkish coach had resigned from his role after Kenya failed to qualify for the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) in Morocco.
Firat had resigned citing comments made by the then Cabinet Secretary for Sports Kipchumba Murkomen, who had said that the Kenyan government was engaging in ways to terminate his contract after he failed to take Harambee Stars to the 35th edition of AFCON.
“But from what I know is they have done nothing (to respond to my demand letter) and I don’t know especially now their friend the CS (Murkomen) took over in a different position and I don’t know how the situation with them and the new Sports CS is, so it is really going to be mess for sure and I don’t know what to say,” Firat added.
“From now on they should talk directly to my agent about the matter because I want to focus on my own life and not these kinds of matters.”
Kenya, who were chasing a seventh appearance at the Morocco tournament, failed to seal a ticket after finishing third in Group J which consisted of winners Cameroon, second-placed Zimbabwe and Namibia, who finished last.
The problem of Kenya not paying coaches is not new. In May 2016, FKF found themselves sweating over a KSh 245 million legal suit from two of its former coaches – Bobby Williamson and Adel Amrouche.
Williamson, who handled Harambee Stars for 16 months, was seeking compensation of KSh105million for unlawful dismissal while Belgian Amrouche was demanding KSh 130 million as compensation, an amount equivalent to the remainder of his five-year contract which was to run until 2019 but he was fired in August 2014.
In 2020, Frenchman Sebastien Migne threatened to report FKF to FIFA over unpaid dues. Migne, who led Kenya to the 2019 AFCON in Egypt after a 15-year wait where they failed to go past the group stage, was fired following Harambee Stars’ elimination from the 2020 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
