Twaha Mbarak joins race for FKF presidency

Veteran football administrator Twaha Mbarak Tuesday officially declared his interest in the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) presidency. 

Mbarak, 53, in a statement, said he is the best bet for Kenyan football and promised to work together with various stakeholders to ensure the game grows from the grassroots to the national level.

“My leadership will be focused on talent identification and local talent growth which can make football grow, hence good performance with the national team,” said Mbarak.

Mbarak promised to bring new technical personell to help restore lost glory at national team level. 

"We will have to get these coaches, referees, match commissioners and football experts, to focus on the new training methods, our philosophy and better training for our local coaches,” he added.

Mbarak served as the defunct Kenya Football Federation Vice Chairman between 2010 and 2011 under the leadership of Sam Nyamweya. He is remembered as being part of the football delegation which sued Fifa at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Zurich over the eligibility of Football Kenya Limited which was led then by the late Mohamed Hatimy, Titus Kasuve and Erastus Okul. 

KFF and FKL were then disbanded and a joint election supervised by Fifa was held in 2011 which gave birth to FKF. Twaha teamed up with Josephat Murila and opposed Nyamweya who emerged victorious with Sammy Shollei becoming his deputy.

FKF elections will be held in October this year with the Annual General Meeting set for March 16 in Nairobi. 

Twaha said he will attend the meeting as Bandari chairman and called for a joint election with the County Football Associations whom he said have complied with the Sports Act.

He asserted that he will source for sponsorship of the local league which he said is struggling due to lack of sufficient television coverage.

“Transparency and accountability will be key to my leadership role. I will bring sponsorship from the Premier League to lower county leagues by bringing on board sponsors  and all 47 county governments.

“This will help to develop our grassroots football by ensuring good infrastructure, by upgrading all counties' stadiums and pitches. Marketing our league to help teams be more competitive is also in my plans,” he said.