Kenya: Respect Football Elections Guidelines – Twaha

Philip Onyango

24 April 2011

Nairobi — Kenya Football Federation senior vice-chairman Twaha Mbarak wants football stakeholders to respect and follow the football elections guidelines to help end the current impasse in the management of the game in the country.

Mbarak, who has declared his interest for the chairman’s post at the forthcoming elections, Sunday also appealed to clubs to “vote wisely and lock out any candidates who intend to use football as a stepping stone to politics.”

Mbarak said the guidelines issued by Fifa through the Independent Electoral Board (IEB) had taken cognizance of the Kenyan constitution and the laws of the land and pleaded with his fellow candidates to toe the line.

Government interference

“It is common knowledge that nobody would want to be led by someone of dubious character and that is why the clause blocking those with courts cases was included in the guidelines and so is the case with those holding political party posts because Fifa never advocates for government interference in football federations,” he said.

Twaha said it was unfortunate that Football Kenya Limited chairman Mohammed Hatimy was unhappy with the decision by Fifa to direct that elections be held under a neutral association and not KFF or FKL while knowing very well that there was no way an election could have been held under a private company.

He also wondered why some candidates were against the decision to allow clubs to vote directly saying the clubs were the biggest stakeholders in the game and should, therefore have a full say on how it is managed.

“What people must understand is that the Kenyan situation is unique because Fifa realised that they made the biggest mistake in recognising a private company, Football Kenya Limited, as the managers of football in the country against their own statutes which require that the game be run by federations or associations and not private companies as has been the Kenyan case,” he argued.

Scrutinise the backgrounds

He said FKL never transformed from KFF as was alleged by the former’s officials and that is why there are two bodies running football in Kenya at the moment.

“The elections guidelines cannot obviously please everyone, and that is why we had ‘Yes’ and ‘No’ camps when we wanted to pass the new Kenyan constitution. This does not therefore mean that the guidelines are bad,” he said.

Mbarak said it was difficult for Fifa to clear anyone who has been taken to court by his own government on behalf of the federations because it is not Fifa’s case.

He appealed to clubs to carefully scrutinise the backgrounds of those running for elective posts and reject those whose conduct and interests are questionable for the sake of the Kenyan football which has suffered for a long time.

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