As results continued to trickle in from the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) branch elections that saw the biggest shock in the Nairobi East chairmanship contest where incumbent vice chairman George ‘Kalogo’ Onyango was beaten by lawyer Amos Otieno, former FKF president Sam Nyamweya has dismissed the process.
Nyamweya said the county elections carried out on Saturday were a charade, an exercise in futility and an illegality.
“The whole exercise is riddled with illegalities, glaring electoral malpractices in total violation of the Sports Act 2013 and the Constitution of Kenya 2010. Basic and universally acceptable tenets of free, fair and credible and democratic elections have been thrown out of the window and trampled underfoot,” stated Nyamweya.
The experienced football administrator alleged partisanship from the Kentice Tikolo-led board.
“The FKF electoral board has confirmed our worst fears that it is an appendage of the incumbent, serving their interests and presiding over a coronation exercise other than a credible election. As late as Saturday morning, the FKF Electoral Board openly displayed their incompetence and outright bias by moving the venue of Nairobi West Branch from Pumwani to a facility owned by an outgoing NEC member and a member of team blue. Caleb Malweyi won the chairman seat against Charles Njoroge who had called for his name to be omitted from the ballot paper.
Nyamweya pointed out further that the FKF Electoral Board failed to carry out fresh nominations exercise of all the candidates and instead handed over team blue candidates nominations tickets without paying the requisite nomination fees and going through the nomination process.
“We are being treated to a circus where we have candidates on the ballot box having not satisfied the criteria for nomination. This alone renders the whole exercise illegal, null and void.”
He concluded by saying that the only remedy available is for Fifa and the Government of Kenya to put in place a normalisation committee that among other things will carry out free, fair and credible elections.
