Shown red card: Why I’m not toasting to Nick Mwendwa’s exit

Amina Mohamed

From left, Football Kenya Federation inspection committee chairman Michael Kimoko, Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed and Sports Principal Secretary Joe Okudo during a press conference at Moi International Sports Centre, Kasarani on November 11, 2021.

Photo credit: Sila Kiplagat | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • The exercise, we are made to understand, was duly done and on Thursday morning the audit report was submitted to Amina.

And so it has come to pass. Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is no more. The federation and its erstwhile president, Nick Mwendwa, has finally been kicked out of office by Cabinet Secretary for Sports Amina Mohamed.

Mwendwa, who left office kicking, screaming and even rebuking Amina for her decision to disband the federation and appoint a caretaker committee in its stead, has been living on borrowed time for the last one month or so.

Mwendwa’s goose was cooked mid last month when the CS ordered the Sports Registrar Rose Wasike to conduct an audit on the activities and financial dealings of the federation.

The exercise, we are made to understand, was duly done and on Thursday morning the audit report was submitted to Amina.

The Cabinet Secretary’s action was swift and decisive. In one fell swoop, Amina sealed poor Mwendwa’s fate by disbanding FKF and naming a caretaker committee.

It’s déjà vu for Kenyan football fraternity. We’ve been in this unenviable spot more than enough times.

Palace coups, splinter formations, disbandment and caretaker committees could very easily summarise the long and eventful history of the Kenyan federation – which I’m not too sure which name to refer to at this point in time.

It’s saddening that we’ve ended up with characters who are more corrupt and despicable than their predecessors as the key milestones in our football federation’s tumultuous history.

Yes, it’s true that at the moment Mwendwa’s public lynching is being celebrated to a man in our football circles. Fair enough. But think about it, back in 2016, when Mwendwa effortlessly swept aside the likes of Sam Nyamweya and took up the reins of the federation, who knew that he would turn out to be far worse than his predecessor?

Vast majority

And it hasn’t been any different with the vast majority of the previous office bearers. Save for the late Kenneth Matiba, who himself orchestrated a bloodless coup that revolutionized football management in the 70s, nearly all the others who came along thereafter left – or were forced to leave – office in a worse state than they found it.

You will struggle to find any meaningful legacy that was left by the likes of the late Job Omino, Peter Kenneth, Maina Kariuki, Alfred Sambu, the late Mohammed Hatimy and Nyamweya, through the 90s into the new millennium, if not maleficence and gross maladministration of the sport.

And now Mwendwa’s name has been added to that long list of shame. That tells us that the problem with Kenyan football is neither Nick Mwendwa nor Barry Otieno per se.

It tells us that as a society we have deep lying moral and ethical issues which transcend the Nyamweyas and Mwendwas of this world.

That perhaps explains why we keep electing or letting such unscrupulous individuals find their way into public offices and thereafter meekly surrender to these muggers.

We only realise our mistakes much later and start lamenting after the public coffers have been wiped clean by these crooks.

Which is why I’m not toasting to Mwendwa’s unceremonious removal from office. The caretaker committee has six months to do its job and midwife the birth of a new FKF office.

We can only wish them luck in this Herculean task, but don’t hold your breath. Personally,  I wouldn’t be surprised if another Nick Mwendwa popped out of the delivery room.