Embattled Football Kenya Federation (FKF) boss Nick Mwendwa has termed CS Amina Mohamed’s decision to form a caretaker committee to run football in the country as an illegality and has vowed to stay put as the boss.
The Cabinet Secretary on Thursday formed a 15-member committee chaired by retired judge Aaron Ringera to run the Federation for six months, throwing out Mwendwa and his entire office on recommendation from a report by the Sports Registrar’s office.
Reacting to the development, Mwendwa said Amina had from the start decided to kick her out of office.
“As football we have said it. We reject this committee and we rebuke it. We will not accept it. When someone is elected in office and not found guilty of anything, some minister who clearly does not know what she is doing cannot show up and arbitrarily just decide to remove us from office. It is wrong and it is illegal,” Mwendwa said as he addressed the media on Thursday evening.
Mwendwa is accused of gross misappropriation of funds and mismanagement of Federation affairs though he says no one has been in touch with them on what exactly they are accused of.
“No one from the Ministry, the CS herself included has communicated anything to us. We are being told of a report, one which we don’t know its contents and have not been given a chance to defend ourselves,” Mwendwa said in an unusually low tone.
He added; “We have also learn of these things from the media. It is very wrong for her to arbitrarily try remove us from office. We are elected, not appointed and FKF has its own rules and regulations and processes that should be followed.”
He further said; “We are happy to be inspected and we have shared every document with them. But, the minister all along has been trying to remove us illegally from office. This is wrong for a minister who is supposed to help sports in this country to entangle herself in football politics. We have known this from the first day when she issued a press release to inspect us,”
“We are the only Federation to be inspected by any minister under the 2013 Sports Act. The Minister for her own political reasons from the beginning has wanted to install a committee at FKF and all attempts to show her this has gone unheeded,” Mwendwa further said.
Mwendwa has also gone on to poke holes in the committee appointed by the CS, questioning her motive to appoint some members who contested in the last election as well as her appointment of Harambee Starlets striker Neddy Atieno into the committee.
“She clearly does not know what she is doing. How can you appoint an active player, of the Harambee Starlets into a fake committee. She has also gone on to pick our competitors from the last election, some of who got three votes,” Mwendwa further added.
Meanwhile, world football governing body has threatened Kenya with a ban if the decision to appoint the Committee remains.
In a letter to FKF Secretary General Barry Otieno, FIFA says the decision amounts to third party interference on the Federation.