- The crackdown, she disclosed, started with the Kenya Cricket Association before moving to FKF.
- Amina disclosed that she has set her eyes on three other federations that are not compliant with the law.
Image: EZEKIEL AMING'A
Sports CS Amina Mohammed had defended her move to order for an audit of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) even as she denied claims of a political hand behind her decision.
Appearing before the National Assembly’s Sports, Culture and Tourism Committee on Wednesday, the CS said decision aims to establish truth or otherwise of concerns raised by stakeholders about the happenings at the federation.
Amina spoke amid reports DCI officers have move to investigate FKF President Nick Mwendwa over alleged misappropriation of Sh244.59 million meant for preparations of the Harambee Stars during 2019 Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).
Mwendwa has also been on the limelight over dismal performance of the national football team, Harambee Stars, in the continental competitions.
“I think what has driven us to do what we are doing now is actually the stakeholders that have major interests in the sports,” Amina told the committee.
Amina was reacting to questions by committee chairman Patrick Makau (Mavoko) about the reasons behind the move to audit only FKF.
“Is there politicization of the federation? Is the same axe falling on all the federations are we are only singling out some? That is what we want to know as a committee,” Makau said.
The CS said the audit is a transparent process and is anchored in law.
“We wanted to ensure that the process was legal, just and fair and that no other externalities would impact or influence the process,” she said.
“I just want to assure you that the process is going to be legitimate. That we are going to go through the entire process, do everything that is required so that we don’t jump to conclusions with without due process,” she added.
On October 14, the CS directed Sports Registrar Rose Wasike to investigate affairs of the Federation.
“Today, pursuant to Section 52 (1) of the Sports Act (2013), I have directed the Registrar of Sports to undertake the inspection of Football Kenya Federation in accordance to the provisions of the Act,” she had said in statement.
Yesterday, said the findings of the audit will inform the decision that Ministry, in collaboration with other stakeholders, will to streamline operations at FKF.
“We are now having an audit of FKF and depending on what the audit says, then the roadmap will be clear. If the audit says everything is okay, then we know what we will do. And if there are issues, then we address them together with stakeholders and the federation,” she said.
Amina said FKF is not the only federation under scrutiny, explaining that her ministry has embarked on streamlining all federations that are not compliant with the Sports Act.
The crackdown, she disclosed, started with the Kenya Cricket Association before moving to FKF.
“The first federation that dealt with was cricket and with the permission of the ICC, we were able to put a normalization committee in place. We did that about six months ago,” she said.
Amina disclosed that she has set her eyes on three other federations that are not compliant with the law.
“There are a few others that we are having discussions with because we feel they are not dully in compliant with the sports act,”
“I will not disclose which one because we are in discussions with them right now. Depending on how far we get, we can see how we can improve the working of some of these federations,” she said.