Nick Mwendwa barred from third term FKF Presidential bid

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FOOTBALL Nick Mwendwa barred from third term FKF Presidential bid

Mark Kinyanjui 12:45 - 08.02.2024

Mwendwa has been declared 'ineligible' from contesting for a third term as FKF President by the Sports Registrar or else risk legal sanctions.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa will not be eligible to run for a third term in office.

This has been confirmed by Sports Registrar Rose Wasike in a four-page letter to the Federation, which has also indicated that Deputy President Dorris Petra and other National Executive Council members, such as Muriithi Nabea, (Eastern) Joseph Andere (Nyanza) and Enos Kweya (Western) will not be eligible to run, in their current capacities, having served two terms.

Mwendwa was considering a third term in office to make up for the time he lost when the federation was disbanded in late 2021 and the better part of 2022 which effectively led to FIFA suspending football in Kenya for over a year.

Now, Wasike has made it clear that Mwendwa and the other officials who have served two terms will not be allowed to vie for third terms in the same roles as stipulated in the Sports Act.

“The role of the officials whose terms have expired will be to ensure that FKF elections are held according to the constitution of Kenya 2010, the Sports Act, Sports Registrar regulations and any other relevant law and thereafter hand the office to the newly elected officials,” the letter quoted by Nation Sport read.

“The second schedule to the Sports Act provides for the term of office for elected officials as four years and one further term of four years.

“Hence, it means that since FKF was first registered on July 29, 2016 (copy of interim certificate attached) the current officials of FKF will complete their two terms of office on July 29, 2024 and will therefore not be eligible to vie for the upcoming elections.”

The federation had taken the situation to the Sports Disputes Tribunal in efforts to allow the officials to contest for third terms in office, which were rejected flat out.

“This was ascertained by the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) in the SDTC NO. E034 OF 2022 where the tribunal declined to allow the second and third Respondents from vying.

“Therefore, the role of officials whose terms in office have expired will be to ensure the FKF elections  are held as per the law and thereafter hand over office to the newly elected officials.”

The Federation has been warned to adhere to the demands that have been stipulated, failure to which will result in dire consequences.

“Failure to adhere to my advice will leave me with no option other than to reject or cancel the election results that will be filed in my office as before which might lead to serious legal issues.”

Last week, Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba promised that federations that would not follow the law in running their respective dockets would be banned by the international governing bodies if it meant their acts would be “cleaned up”.

“You also like threatening the government that, ‘you touch us and some international federation will come for you’: That will not happen with us.

“If it takes your discipline being suspended so that you can follow the law, we will allow you to be suspended, take it from me.

“If it takes you to be banned for one to three years so that we can clean you up, we will, because, at the end of the day, we will not compromise national interests because you are threatening us with a ban from some international federations, so just follow the law.”

“Accede to the Sports Act, follow the act, and respect the constitution of Kenya. By the way, those international federations like FIFA and World Aquatics, all these federations, I talk to them. 

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