Kenya: How the Sleaze in World Football Spread to Kenya

Charles Nyende

4 June 2011

Nairobi — On the morning of April 20, a private jet touched down at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport, and a Qatari man stepped out and made his way to the arrivals hall.

Once through immigration formalities Mohammed Bin Hammam was driven straight to the Panari Hotel on Mombasa Road.

Several hours later the Asian football supremo was driven back to JKIA where he made a quiet exit from the country.

Local media only got wind of his visit after he had departed. His presence would ordinarily not have drawn much interest, but Fifa, the world soccer governing body, was on the threshold of a presidential campaign.

Mr Bin Hammam, the head of the Asia Football Confederation and Fifa vice-president (now suspended over bribery allegations) was challenging incumbent Sepp Blatter for the right to lead Fifa for the next four years.

He was in the country to meet football heads from the 11-member Council of East and Central Africa Football Associations. No one knows what transpired in at the Panari Hotel.

Mr Bin Hammam and his eager audience wanted everything to be done quietly.

But when interviewed later Football Kenya Limited chairman Mohammed Hatimy said Cecafa chairman Leodega Tenga was trying to get the region to vote as a block for Mr Bin Hammam.

“We (FKL) said no. We said we will consider the two candidates and what they have to offer Kenya and Africa, and then we will decide,” Mr Hatimy said.

Next stop for Mr Bin Hammam was Trinidad on May 10 where he met members of the Caribbean Football Union and presented his manifesto. Concacaf boss Jack Warner organized the meeting.

Then the dirt hit the fan last week when Concacaf secretary general and Fifa executive committee member Chuck Blazer charged that CFU officials had received $40,000 (Sh3.36 million) each from Mr Bin Hammam for votes.

Mr Warner was also fingered in this bribery allegation forcing Fifa’s ethics committee to suspend all the CFU officials from all football activity pending full investigations.

The suspension left Mr Blatter, 75, as the sole candidate for presidency, and despite efforts by the English FA, backed by their government, to have the elections postponed until the murky dealings and bribery allegations were cleared up, the election was held June 1.

Mr Blatter received 186 of the 203 votes cast. Mr Hatimay, FKL senior vice-chairman Titus Kasuve and secretary Joseph Agola represented FKL are believed to have voted for Mr Blatter.

Pundits say the Fifa president has built a strong power base within the Fifa delegates system, and it was always going to be difficult to unseat him.

Indeed Mr Blatter has used Fifa’s considerably financial muscle to endear himself to associations from Africa, South America and Asia that make up 146 of Fifa’s 208 members.

“We voted for Blatter to be the Fifa president in 1998. But it was a very tedious campaign….The candidates tried to get regions to vote in blocks, and Blatter prevailed,” said current KFF chairman Sam Nyamweya, who was the federation secretary then.

Mr Blatter unexpectedly defeated then Uefa chairman Lennart Johansson with 111 votes to his 80, but the voting was marred by claims from Somali Football Federation president Farah Addo that he was offered $100,000 (Sh8.4 million) to vote for Mr Blatter.

Mr Nyamweya said he was not aware of any brown envelopes being passed around.

Suspected vote-buying has cast a shadow over Fifa elections over the past decade, and the burgeoning wealth of the football body only makes the suspicions more plausible.

Under Mr Blatter Fifa has registered phenomenal growth in its revenue chiefly from sale of television rights and marketing rights.

Fifa revenue grew to $4.2 billion (Sh353 billion) between 2007 and 2010, almost double the mount earned between 2003 and 2006 of $2.4 billion (Sh202 billion).

Mr Blatter initiated the Fifa Goal Project in 1998 to help poorer member associations build administrative centres and training facilities.

The organisation set aside $120 million (Sh10 billion) for the Goal Project. Kenya has received $450,000 (Sh37.8 million) for the project located at Kasarani.

Under Mr Blatter, Fifa also initiated a financial assistance programme for member associations.

Each association is guaranteed $1 million (Sh84 million) over a period of four years. The money is intended for football development and to run the secretariat of associations.

Fifa has also spent almost $1 billion (Sh84 billion) over the last four years on development projects, including the much-publicised Win in Africa with Africa in the run-up to the first World Cup held on the continent last year.

The project funded the laying of an artificial turf at Nairobi’s City Stadium in 2008. Over the 2007-2010 period Fifa also gave a one-off grant of $550,000 (Sh46.2 million) to each national body.

But while Fifa has been generous to its members, this has not been matched with a demand for accountability. Football Kenya Limited and Kenya Football Federation before it have been many times accused of financial impropriety.

In 2004, KFF chairman Maina Karuiki, his secretary Hussein Swaleh and treasurer Mohammed Hatimy were charged in court with stealing Sh55 million of both federation and Fifa funds.

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