FKF barred from holding AGM

The Football Kenya Federation has suffered a setback after the High Court Tuesday extended the period stopping the National Executive Committee from conducting all activities including convening any general meeting. 

The orders remain in force until October 7, 2024.

This includes the Annual General Meeting or Special General Meeting which are core to the electoral process of the federation. The order has a penal notice that should there be any disobedience or non observance of the order of the court the result will see penal consequences.

The order comes only two days after FKF President Nick Mwendwa said that all the court cases against the federation had been terminated. 

“The respondents are hereby prohibited from calling any AGM of the federation or doing any act on behalf of the federation as prayed for in the motion pending hearing of the application. These orders shall remain in force up to October 7 unless otherwise varied by a court order,” said an order issued by Lady Justice Janet Mulwa Tuesday.

Journalist Milton Nyakundi had moved to the court on July 26 seeking orders to bar FKF from conducting the AGM.

FKF had last week withdrawn the case it filed at the High Court in Mombasa that stopped the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) from delivering a judgment in a contempt case against the federation’s top leadership that was filed by Nyakundi.

The effect of FKF withdrawing the case, Nyakundi said, is that the interlocutory application that he made at the same court and which stopped the AGM from taking place on March 16 had been “technically defeated”.

But he insisted that the current FKF office holders cannot convene the AGM since they are in office illegally. “The effect (of FKF withdrawing the case they filed in the High Court in Mombasa) is that right now, there is no order stopping the AGM but legally they (the federation’s current office holders) cannot convene the AGM because they were removed from office,” said Nyakundi.

“Any attempt by Mwendwa and his team to convene an AGM will be against the rule of law and it will be stopped,” he added.

In the matter that was before the High Court in Mombasa, Gabriel Mghendi, the FKF’s National Executive Committee (NEC) Member for the Coast region, had secured orders that temporarily barred SDT from delivering judgment in the contempt case against the federation’s top leadership.

He applied for a judicial review order to quash the directions and orders that FKF’s top officials were culpable of acting against the law. In his petition before the SDT, Nyakundi questioned why FKF continued to operate and even draw funding from the government and other organisations even after the sports body was disbanded by the Sports Cabinet Secretary then, Amina Mohammed in 2021.

The scribe further said in court papers that a High Court ruled in July 2022 that Amina was within her legal powers in disbanding FKF. He wants the officials jailed for six months and fined for contempt, and upon release be barred from accessing the FKF offices and bank accounts.

FKF has been unable to hold its AGM since March 15 when an order by Justice Olga Sewe of the High Court in Mombasa stopped the event.

Sports journalist Milton Nyakundi was the petitioner in the matter, questioning the legality of the capacity of the federation’s top leadership to convene the AGM.

On June 7, FKF suffered the second setback after the Court of Appeal in Mombasa dismissed their appeal to grant a stay order on the interim orders barring them from convening and conducting the AGM.

A three Judge bench A.K Murgor, G. v Odunga and K.I Laibuta ruled that National Executive Committee can’t convene and conduct the AGM of the FKF because their legality is a matter pending before different courts notably Sports Dispute Tribunal and the High Court sitting in Mombasa.

FKF President Nick Mwendwa, Vice President Doris Petra and CEO Barry Otieno had moved to the Court of Appeal on April 12 seeking to have a stay of the interim orders, which had been issued by High Court barring the AGM.