Sports Registrar Rose Wasike on Thursday advised Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to postpone its national polls to arrest irregularities in the electoral process.

She made the recommendation in a six-page letter addressed to FKF General Secretary Barry Otieno.

“It would have been prudent for FKF not to proceed with the planned elections to allow them put their house in order and conform to the national laws of the county and Fifa Statutes before proceeding with the elections," the Wasike noted.

FKF is set to conduct its national elections in Nairobi Saturday, with delegates drawn from 47 counties and football clubs electing a new president and his National Executive Committee (NEC) to serve for a four year term.

Necessary clearance

But the Registrar has questioned the credibility of the federation's branch elections conducted on September 19 and also faulted the Electoral Board for clearing candidates to contest in the grassroots polls without necessary clearance from government agencies as required by law.

“Paragraph 20 (2) of Sports Registrar Regulations requires an organisation carrying out elections to ensure the nominated candidates obtain clearance from the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Credit Reference Bureau (CRB) and the Higher Educations Loans Board (HELB).

“You, however, submitted the list of the list of officials elected (in the branch polls) without the requisite clearance by the above Government agencies and therefore they were in violation (of the law)," she noted. 

"I have received complaints through letters and calls that Football Kenya Federation (FKF) used un-registered entities/persons and officials of registered County Associations that have never initiated their registration and also used the name of interim officials of County Sports Associations as opponents to their aspiring candidates without their knowledge and approval."

She adds: "Arising from their complaints, I did call some of them who alluded the same sentiments and even explained to me that they had never submitted nomination papers apart from those that were quashed by the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) and the forms that were never counter signed by them."

This is the second time in less than a year that the Registrar is calling for the postponement of FKF polls.

A similar plea last November was ignored by FKF only for the exercise to be nullified by the SDT.

The SDT has since nullified two FKF elections in the past year and Friday afternoon its chairman John Ohaga will rule on a case in which a group of stakeholders including former FKF president Sam Nyamweya and Cecafa Secretary General Nicholas Musonye have challenged the transparency of the exercise.

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