Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has responded to FIFA and asked the world football governing body to allow the government to clean the sports sector.
FIFA banned Kenya and Zimbabwe from international matches, citing government interference. It further asked the government to repeal its decision to disband the Football Kenya Federation (FKF).
In a statement issued on Saturday, February 26, Amina told FIFA that the government is still determined to engage it to find a lasting solution to the standoff, arguing that the disbanded Football Federation of Kenya (FKF) led by Nick Mwendwa was crippling football in the country.
According to the CS, the decision to disband FKF fully adhered to the Laws of Kenya and followed a legally defined process.
She further expressed her confidence in the caretaker committee which was appointed to take over from FKF led by the retired Justice Aaron Ringera and former KTN News anchor Lindah Ogottu as the head of the secretariat.
Amina noted that the secretariat streamlined the sector in the short period they have been in power through organising international matches and levelling the playing field between male and female referees and players.
"We tried on many occasions to bring the matter which had festered for long to the attention of FIFA with no success as well. It seemed to us at times that FIFA and FKF were reading from the same book. Football in Kenya had deteriorated at all levels due to this mismanagement and had led to a public outcry. The Government has a responsibility to its citizenry to act in the public interest at all times.
"The approach taken by FKF to become a law unto themselves and ignore its stakeholders, discourage our youth and make it clear that they had neither talent nor a future in football, firing and hiring of coaches in total disregard for signed contracts and the inherent conflict of interest that was always present demanded action from somewhere and the Registrar took action anchored on our laws," Amina wrote.
Amina argued that FIFA was hell-bent on not coordinating with governments yet it requires the same administrations and stakeholders to fund football with no transparency or accountability in total disregard for national laws, institutions, values and practices.
She lamented that her ministry's efforts to communicate with FIFA were futile. Among the issues, she attempted to raise, were questions on how FKF spent resources issued to it by the government, the Confederation of African Football (CAF) and FIFA.
"It is now even thought that in some cases there was double payment. We paid for activities and services that had already been paid for by CAF.
FIFA, in fact, in our case and many others, showed so much reluctance to engage with government, for good order, for universal principles of accountability and transparency that we were left with no choice but to allow it to manage football as we complied with our laws and demanded accountability for monies entrusted to the Federation for use on our youth," Amina hit back at FIFA.
Solutions.
Amina highlighted that the decision by CAF to ban Harambee Starlets who had fully prepared for the AWCON Qualifiers was a hindrance to Kenya's football. She urged CAF to rescind the decision.
She also wants FIFA to recognise the caretaker committee, take notice of all the positive developments and allow it to continue cleaning up, putting systems of accountability in place as well as a draft constitution that is fully aligned to the Constitution of Kenya 2010, the FIFA statute.
"We intend at the same time to engage FIFA as we have continued doing over the last three and a half months. We intend to keep it informed as we have done until now on the going cases, investigations and the actions that we are taking.
"We hope FIFA will reciprocate and keep Kenyans informed on actions they intend to take with respect to issues we have raised on alleged misappropriation of their resources," Amina stated.
