The sooner Nick Mwendwa realises he is FKF president in name only the better

Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa has been a seemingly very, very busy person during this time of Covid-19 enforced inactivity that has seen little kicking of the ball on our pitches.

On April 30, he announced on his Twitter account that Gor Mahia were the champions of Kenya and would represent the country in the Caf Champions League.

Meanwhile, the Kenyan Premier League Limited, an entity legally mandated to run the competition, riposted no such decision had been made and the league remained suspended.

The FKF secretariat later released a press statement declaring the season cancelled (meaning annulled, voided, negated, invalidated), while going ahead to name a winner. How does someone win a competition that has been cancelled?

On July 16, the federation, through its official Twitter account @Football Kenya, announced a little-known betting firm BetKing as the official FKF Premier League title sponsor in a Sh1.2 billion five-year deal, never mind the KPL, that currently runs the competition were not involved in any negotiations that may have taken place.

Mwendwa later held a press conference on July 30 at Kasarani, without a single representative of the billion-shillings benefactor, to announce to all and sundry that the official unveiling of the BetKing sponsorship would be done in August.

For the record, no such event was held in that month or this one for that matter. The Kenyan football world continues to wait.

Last week, the president was talking about the federation’s plans to resume football activities in the country. He stated matter-of-factly that the league would resume mid-October.

He talked about team training restarting mid this month. He talked about Covid-19 protocols that the federation was putting/was going to put in place so that football returned, sponsors returned and fans returned.

He has talked about the setting up of a new company to manage the Kenyan top league,  unilaterally instigating the formation of some ad hoc working committee -- even selecting the head, made up of five KPL club members – Erick Oloo (Ulinzi Stars chairman) as chairman, Dan Shikanda (AFC Leopards chairman), Dan Aduda (Tusker chairman), Robert Maoga (Kariobangi Sharks chairman) and Ken Ochieng (Zoo chairman) to come up with a working plan.

This notwithstanding the fact that the Kenyan Premier League Limited is in existence and lawfully mandated to organise the competition. Its mandate, according to the agreement with FKF, stands until September 23  when it can be reviewed or terminated.

Already there are questions being raised over the legal status of the five-man committee.

The FKF president has talked about securing broadcast rights with some pay television station and how the Kenyan Premier League will be back live on a major television channel.

Fair and well. This seems to be a very hardworking football administrator. But the trouble is football in the country is in the middle of an election cycle that just cannot, seemingly, end, and there is, technically, no federation as a legal structure in existence.

Anything but normal

Things are anything but normal.

In fact, two elections were nullified by the Sports Dispute Tribunal over various reasons touching on discrepancies with the constitution and the Sports Act.

So how is this FKF president operating? I have taken care to peruse the FKF Constitution and it is very clear on what powers the president has.

Article 42, 1 on the president states: The President represents FKF legally. He is the spokesman, legal representative and chief delegate of the Federation. Article 42, 2 states: He is primarily responsible for: Implementing the decisions passed by the General Assembly and the National Executive Committee through the general secretariat.

Very concise indeed.

Article 39 of the FKF Constitution is also very clear on the powers of the National Executive Committee. Section 1, a of the article states: The National Executive Committee shall pass decisions on all cases that do not come within the sphere of responsibility of the General Assembly or are not reserved for other bodies by law or under this Constitution.

This is no rocket science. It is very clear on who has the powers to make decisions and who implements these decisions in the federation. The question then arises: On whose authority has Mwendwa or the federation been acting in announcing the major decisions supposedly made by FKF this year in the absence of the decision making NEC?

Are not these decisions supposed to be made by the National Executive Committee and then delegated to Mwendwa as president to implement?

In fact, the president can only take part in making the decisions he is purportedly making through attending an FKF National Executive Committee gathering and invariably influencing the direction it takes. No more, no less.

A fact Sports Dispute Tribunal chairman John Ohago so succinctly declared last week: “that the Office of the President of FKF is not synonymous with the National Executive Committee.”

The sooner Mwendwa realises he is only a president in name, until a new office is voted in, the better.

In other words, without a legally constituted NEC and a Governing Council in place, Mwendwa’s (first) four-year term is effectively over.

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