On Friday, January 28, Federation of Uganda Football Associations (FUFA) announced that Uganda’s women's football team, The Crested Cranes will play at this year’s Women’s Africa Cup of Nations following a withdrawal by Kenya's Harambee Starlets.
The two nations were to face each other in a qualifiers match with the first leg to be played in Uganda and the reverse fixture in Kenya in mid-February this year.
The news came as a surprise to many as the Harambee Starlets had already started their preparations for the tournament under newly appointed coach Alex Alumirah.
Reports detailed that embattled FKF CEO Barry Otieno wrote to CAF highlighting the challenges the federation was going through which prompted CAF to cancel the fixture.
Otieno wrote the letter to CAF despite the High Court barring former federation boss Nick Mwendwa and his agents from engaging in football matters until the case against them is heard and determined.
Sports Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed formed a caretaker team led by retired Justice Aaron Ringera to take over football and its related duties. CAF's decision to grant Uganda a direct ticket further highlights the confusion and power struggle between FKF and the FKF caretaker team.
“Reference is made to the press statement released by the Cabinet Secretary for Sports. Amb. Arnina Mohammed, on November 11, 2020. disbanding FKF and installing an FKF- Caretaker Committee and a secretariat to oversee all football activities in the country.
"Further the Cabinet secretary also ordered for the immediate lock down of the FKF premises denying all FKF staff access to the office. A situation that has completely incapacitated the federations operations,” part of the letter read.
The letter stated that the federation was in no capacity to handle any international fixture in an independent way, highlighting on the match between the Starlets and Crested Cranes.
“In view of the above and taking into consideration the existing government directive taking over all footballing activities. The federation Is unable to independently plan and successfully execute any international matches which includes the upcoming Kenya vs Uganda Africa Women Cup of Nations (AWCON) 2022 qualifier matches, scheduled to take place within February 14, 2022 to February 23, 2022 FIFA window.
“However, the federation will keep CAF informed should the aforementioned situation change and the FKF secretariat regains access to the premises and is able to fully control footballing in the country,” the letter read.
But the government of Kenya has moved swiftly with Sports minister Amina Mohammed saying her team has already written to CAF and FIFA indicating that the letter withdrawing Kenya was fraudulent.
“We have learnt that there is a suspected fraudulent letter that was purportedly written to Cad to withdraw our heroines, Harambee Starlets, from the Africa Women Cup of Nations [Awcon] qualifier against Uganda. It should be noted the team is already in camp preparing for the first leg in Kampala, Uganda, on February 17, 2022, and the return leg in Nairobi five days later.
“The Harambee Starlets have worked so hard to get to the last hurdle to the Awcon finals in Morocco later in the year and any attempt to interfere with that must be condemned and not be allowed to succeed. Anyone found to have been involved in any such attempt will be held fully accountable," CS Amina countered.