Nine days before the planned Football Kenya Federation (FKF) county/branch elections, a section of candidates have revoked their nomination for the polls.
They claim the process is still the subject of litigation at the Sports Disputes Tribunal and is unlikely to be free and fair.
The six aspirants from Nairobi West County—Charles Njoroge (chairman), his running mate Wilfred Mukaka, Martin Karanja (secretary), Meshack Osero (treasurer), Moses Oduor (youth representative) and Susan Mudongoi (Women representative) said in their letter of notice that their names should not appear on the list of candidates.
“We are withdrawing our candidature for the elections as the process is currently the subject of litigation before the SDT for being in violation of fundamental requirements of the Constitution of Kenya (2010), the Sports Act 2013, the Fifa statutes, Fifa Standard Electoral Code and FKF Constitution 2017,” read their letter of notice to the Electoral Board.
Last week, the FIG Electoral board chairperson, Kentice Tikolo, had confirmed that all aspirants who had been cleared to participate in the cancelled second county elections in March were still deemed to be in the race unless they communicated to the contrary.
The Nairobi West aspirants have now decided to choose the latter ahead of the September 19 vote.
“The question surrounding the electoral process doesn’t give us the confidence that it will be credible, free and fair. As such, we will not participate in the polls until such a time that the issues around electoral justice in respect of the process are fully addressed to the satisfaction of the largest majority of football stakeholders,” the six concluded.
Last week, presidential aspirants Sam Nyamweya, Nicholas Musonye, Twaha Mbarak and Sammy Sholei as well as former NEC officials Simon Mugo and Angela Mwikali poured cold water on the nomination process and the planned polls.
