FKF electoral board must deliver credible polls

No iron law of politics says a federation cannot recover from decades of poor leadership. So don’t write Hussein Mohammed or the other presidential hopefuls off too quickly because of the long game Nick Mwendwa insists on playing.

Also, don’t kid yourself that this will be just another selection process where Kenyan football stakeholders will accept a bungled process without a word. The Football Kenya Federation (FKF) electoral board has its work cut out, and because we’ve seen this movie before, we know the dangers that lie in plain sight and will quickly notice the slip-ups in the sequel.

Sports Cabinet Secretary Kipchumba Murkomen promised a clean sweep of all rogue federations in the country, and the public will demand that. This week he declared that those currently running the Football Kenya Federation are not eligible to vie for the same positions, and that’s exactly what should happen.

The electoral board must acknowledge the public mood towards politics and government. When they say they will deliver a free and fair election, football lovers who have never witnessed a free and fair election at FKF since 2016 want something to show for it at the end of it all.

It will be a most disgusting sight if the same people who’ve taken Kenyan football to the dogs, or their stooges, will be puffing out their chests and patting their backs after the December elections.

But this cannot happen when Hesbon Owilla and his team rehydrate using Kandanda House coffee or have to ask Nick Mwendwa’s secretary for permission before using Kandanda House stationery, or if they use calculators sullied with Kandanda House algorithms to tally the votes.

If the board’s operational budget comes from Kandanda House, and the board gets no help either from the IEBC or the Sports Registrar to conduct the elections, then they are not an electoral board, but a tool to maintain the status quo.  

Although the contest to get a new FKF secretariat has dragged on for so long that familiarity is breeding indifference, we must ignore the chat about letting anyone with the right amount of money take over.

We must tune out the thought that FKF elections are and will forever be an energy-sapping, time-wasting, zero-sum game. Listen instead to the Voice of God, which reminds us that with this election, we have a great opportunity to fix our sport.

There is an opportunity for Kenyan football to grow bigger, and we must do all it takes to defeat this voting system that gives too much power to the incumbent. 

The electoral board should know that what football stakeholders want is not platitudes or empty promises of a credible election.

We have suffered enough to know that all roads out of the crisis in local football lead via a total overhaul of the people currently driving it. They must therefore get into a different trajectory – one of urgent leadership, and recognition of the unpleasant precipice on which we are all standing. It is not only possible – it is necessary.

And if, for any reason, the board will be unable to deliver on its role, then it will be good for the government to lend some help. If a leader wants to leave any kind of legacy, he must confront the elephant in the room and slay the dragon that threatens the well-being of those he serves.

For CS Murkomen, cleaning up the mess at Kandanda House is both the elephant and the dragon in the room.