Is ex- Cecafa secretary general Musonye the man to transform FKF?

With the country’s football rapidly sinking into the mire, eyes have been scanning around for someone who can transform the landscape — a gem among stones.

Among those frequently suggested to take the reins of the Football Kenya Federation is Nicholas Musonye, ​​the former secretary general of the Council of East and Central African Football Associations (Cecafa).

Musonye is not your run-of-the-mill football administrator. The firebrand member of the fourth estate has traversed the world, dined and wined with kings in palaces, and fought fierce battles against the most potent forces in the scary jungles of regional football.

It is now his second year since he voluntarily stepped down from the Cecafa secretary general’s seat after serving in that capacity for two decades. Cecafa draws its members from 12 East and Central African countries  including Burundi, Djibouti, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, Somalia, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zanzibar.

Despite having a profound love for football, never in his wildest dreams had Musonye ever imagined that he would one day be navigating the minefield that is the region’s football.

The tough-talking master’s degree holder in Business Management has spent his years digging into the intricacies of Kenyan football as a fan, a  journalist and an administrator.

Musonye developed his interest in the game during his formative years when he was able to accompany his father to watch the top-flight matches.

“My father worked in Nairobi and so anytime during the school holidays, I was in the city with him watching football,” said Musonye.

“I started accompanying my father to football matches in 1969, when I was six, and Gor Mahia had just been formed. Luo Union was the most dominant team with quality players before Gor Mahia came in.”

At the same time, he immersed his head in books to create his destiny. His great love for football did not distract him from his studies which eventually thrust him into the world of sports journalism.

“I was born and raised in Shinyalu Constituency in Kakamega County. I attended Murhanda Primary School in Shinyalu between 1970 and 1976 and went to Ingotse Secondary School from 1977-1980.”

“After completing my O-levels at Ingotse, I studied at Kolanya Secondary School in 1981 and took my A-level exams the following year.”

Having completed high school, he had to pick a career.

“I enrolled for a course at the Ontario School of Journalism in Canada between 1983 and 1984,” Musonye said.

Musonye had taken the right career path and found himself with a plethora of options upon graduation.

“When I came back, I was employed by the Kenya Times newspaper for about four years,” he reveals.

He the left to seek a new challenge in Nigeria where he was employed by Concord newspaper for one year. After his return from the west African nation, he was hired by the Daily Nation.

“I did hard news before I was pushed into sports as a senior reporter. Then I left and went to the US to work for the Voice of America and later went to Britain to link up with BBC Africa News. I later joined Reuters,” Musonye said.

Working as a sports journalist opened up opportunities for him in a way he never imagined.

“Between this period, I’d covered around eight Africa Cup of Nations. I attended my first Africa Cup of Nations in 1988 in Morocco then Algeria ( 1990 ), Senegal ( 1992 ), Tunisia ( 1994 ), South Africa ( 1996 ), and Burkina Faso ( 1998 ),” he says.

While in Burkina Faso, he had a life-changing and enlightening conversation with the vice president of the Confederation of African Football (CAF).

“During one of the events I’d been deployed to cover in 1999, I bumped into Caf vice-president Farah Addo. We had previously met on several other occasions but this time he asked me if I was aware of what was ailing the Council for East and Central Africa Football Associations (Cecafa),” says Musonye.

Addo asked Musonye if he was willing to accept an important position at Cecafa. He wanted him to deal firmly with elected officials who were causing problems for Fifa and Caf at the regional council.

“Honestly, I wasn’t so keen on taking up the new challenge because Reuters was paying me very well and Nation Group had paid me very well for all those years. I had covered Cecafa extensively and I witnessed first-hand how it was badly done,” Musonye said.

The rain began to pound Cecafa when its members voted against Sepp Blatter during the elections of the world football body, Fifa.

“We had the World Cup in 1998 in France where Cecafa was suspended for voting against Sepp Blatter during the Fifa elections.Cecafa supported former Uefa president Lennart Johansson, who stood against Sepp Blatter in the 1998 Fifa presidential election. So Blatter won and had to take revenge. He had to pin them down. He wanted to teach them a lesson.”

“Kenya was suspended, all the executives were suspended and it meant there was no one to take care of our football in this zone. I said no. You cannot suspend all member states. We must find a solution immediately,” he adds.

“Caf hired me as an executive officer to come and establish a new Cecafa. I was brought in to streamline the council. In 2002, I was invited to attend a Fifa meeting in Buenos Aires to resolve the problems at Cecafa.”

In Argentina, Musonye got approval from Fifa delegates to take over as Cecafa’s secretary general. But his appointment attracted great hostility from his country.

“When I came back, I found the Football Kenya Federation office very hostile against me. I also found Cecafa in tatters. The secretariat was housed with the then Kenya Football Federation at Nyayo Stadium and we faced a lot of interference,” he remembered.

“The same year, the federation held an election where Maina Kariuki replaced Nyamweya as FKF president. We had a lot of issues because they wanted to drag me into their nonsense which I didn’t like. I said things must be straightened.”

Musonye said that Kenya was not the only thorn. Some of the member states were uncomfortable with the Cecafa secretariat being hosted in Kenya and wanted the headquarters of the council to be moved.

To assert Cecafa’s independence, Musonye took a bold step to move the secretariat out of FKF offices and set up their own, fully independent headquarters.

“I removed the Cecafa secretariat from the KFF offices and made the regional body a completely separate entity. I committed myself to reviving Cecafa and became more concerned about doing things the right way. I decided not to entertain any kind of nonsense,” he says.

Ironically, Kenya became Musonye’s biggest headache throughout his tenure at the helm of Cecafa.

“We had problems with Kenya because they wanted to do things the wrong way. I told Kenya that they were like any other member and had the same status as Djibouti. They had only one vote like any other member nation and should not expect any special favours,” he adds.

“In 2004, KFF held elections that ushered in new officials who attempted to bring their nonsense around me. They wanted to run Cecafa the way KFF was running chaotically but I told them that can’t happen because it was a regional body with statutes that must be respected and there must be transparency.

Trouble started in 2005 when Alfred Sambu, who had then been elected KFF chairman in 2004 at the Moi Stadium, Kasarani, was toppled by his vice-chairman, Mohamed Hatimy, who called a delegates conference at the Stem Hotel, Nakuru.

Sambu was accused of financial impropriety and league mismanagement, allegations he denied in a move that prompted 10 Premier League clubs to bolt out of the KFF.

“I went to Fifa and Caf and explained all this and the two governing bodies instructed me to be hard on the Kenyan federation,” he reveals.

Then came 2006 and Kenya rejected the invitation to participate in the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup.

“We sent Harambee Stars tickets to come and play in Rwanda but the players refused to come insisting they could only do so after being paid their allowances,” he says.

Musonye pleaded with the players to honour their fixtures as KFF looked for ways of settling their allowances but his pleas landed on deaf ears.

“And after the allowances were paid, the players flew to Rwanda using different tickets provided by the government of Kenya. When I told them directly that they will not play, they sought the intervention of Rwandan President Paul Kagame. They even reported me to the late President Mwai Kibaki, but I remained steadfast in my decision,” says Musonye.

Feeling slighted, Harambee Stars returned to Kenya vowing to expel Musonye from office.

“I flew back to Kenya after the Cecafa tournament and dared them to remove me from office.”

As time passed, Musonye felt he wanted to leave Cecafa at his own volition. He felt he had already done enough for the region. He did not regret occupying that volatile seat.

“After staying at Cecafa for 20 years — 2000 to 2020— I decided it was time to leave because people who were born when I took office had now become senior footballers,” he says.

He saw his continued stay at Cecafa as an obstacle to the development of those who had ambitions to occupy the seat he had and decided to vacate.

“Nobody pushed me out of Cecafa. Except for Kenya, Uganda and Ethiopia who could occasionally give me problems, all the other members had  great faith in me throughout my 20 years in office because I was protecting them and ensuring that we had enough sponsors.”

On his own, Musonye achieved what had previously eluded his predecessors. He attracted big companies to sponsor the annual Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup and the Cecafa Kagame Club Championships.

“We sustained the sponsorships of Cecafa and between 2004-06, we managed to secure US$1,000,000 in funding from Sheikh Al Amoudi for the Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup and US$400,000 from Vodacom and President Kagame for Club Championship,” he said. “During my time, East Africa Breweries, Serengeti Beer, Wash United, Supersports, Azam, UNAids, and MTN all sponsored us and we got more partners coming.”

In 2002, the regional body had its first breakthrough when Rwanda president Kagame accepted to become the patron of the Cecafa Club Championships.

“We needed the presence of such a respected figure like Kagame to improve the image of the tournament and to make it appealing to sponsors,” says Musonye.

The tournament was renamed the Kagame Club Championship (with US$60,000 as prize money) and as Musonye had predicted, sponsors were soon falling over themselves to be associated with the brand. MTN, RwaBrew and NMB Bank all agreed to support Cecafa’s activities.

“It was my executive committee and I who traveled to South Africa and succeeded in persuading MTN and Vodacom, at different levels, to support Cecafa. We went to Ethiopia to persuade the wealthy owner of the Sheraton Hotel to be our sponsor for five years, giving us $1 million annually,” he remembers.

“We brought UNAID to Cecafa and they gave us $400,000 per year. Serengeti sponsored us for $6 million for four good years. We never lacked sponsorship or prize money.”

Musonye proudly points out his momentous achievement in the region’s football history when the region took four teams to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations in Cairo, Egypt.

“For the first time since the inception of the Africa Cup of Nations, the East African region was represented by four countries: Ugandan, Tanzanian, Burundian, and Kenyan national teams.”

Never in the history of the competition have four nations from the region, played in the same Africa Nations Cup.

“In 2002 and 2004 we had two teams in the Africa Cup of Nations after a very long time,” Musonye said.

“During my period, apart from the senior challenge cup, we introduced Under 17 for boys and girls as well as the Under 20 and 23. So we had about six competitions in a year.”

Musonye’s administration prides itself on the re-introduction of women’s football to its calendar.

“Lack of funds saw the women’s tournament take an 11-year hiatus up to 2017. There is so much potential among our women footballers and soon they will reach the epic of football—the World Cup.”

Musonye says he is still open to vying for the FKF presidency and has pledged to turn around the fortunes of the country’s footballers if he ascends to the position.

“The current situation in Kenya needs serious surgery because our football has been ruined. In the early 80s and the 90s, Nyayo Stadium would fill by eight o’clock. I remember during the final of Cecafa between Gor Mahia and AFC Leopards the gate collection was Sh6 million. If we could get such amounts at that time, why not now?

“These days we are told that the Mashemeji derby collects an average of Sh700,000 part of which disappears into thin air. That’s bad leadership. The biggest challenge in Kenyan football is governance. People do not want to do the right thing in the right way. With me in charge, things will be done overboard and with quality assurance,” Musonye promised.

He says we had the wrong people running football in this country for quite a while right from the ‘90s.

“That’s why the filth is so deep and stinking. To uproot this nonsense, we need a very strong minister. We need to start afresh. I hope Ababu Namwamba will be equal to the task because he understands quite a bit of it and has held the position before. He was also once an official of AFC Leopards and so he understands the situation in Kenyan football,” he says.

Musonye insists that FKF needs to be audited regularly to ensure that all the funds are used appropriately.

“That is what has been lacking and I intend to change the trend,” Musonye said. “You cannot have people who get money from Fifa and the government refusing to be audited. When I was in Cecafa, I made it a condition that we must be audited so that partners know how their money has been used.”

Musonye is optimistic about attracting more sponsors into our leagues to make our football more competitive.

“I managed to do that at Cecafa. I know that other sports federations also have problems but the worst and most daring one is FKF. If, for instance, I’m the president of FKF and I’m suspended by Kenya, why should I go on fighting to come back knowing very well the goodwill is no longer there? 

He appealed to the expelled federation to stop forcing their agenda down the throats of disgruntled Kenyans.

“The government which is supposed to support me has already suspended me. Because the more you cling to the seat, the more lives you will be ruining — the players, referees, and coaches. Like now, we have already wasted two years because of one person clinging to the FKF presidency,” he concludes.