Nyamweya calls out ‘cartels’ derailing Sports CS Amina’s efforts to clean FKF mess

Kenyan football administrator Sam Nyamweya has criticised a section of people who are out to derail the efforts being made by Sports CS Amina Mohamed to clean up football in the country.

The East African country is currently serving an indefinite ban from the world governing body Fifa after the government moved to dissolve the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) office led by Nick Mwendwa and appointed a caretaker committee to manage the same activities.

Despite the six-month term of the caretaker committee coming to an end early this month, they were handed an extension of five weeks to continue with their role.

However, in a candid interview with GOAL, Nyamweya, who served as the FKF President before paving way for Mwendwa’s regime, believes a group of “cartels” have a different agenda, instead, of supporting Amina and the government to streamline the sport in the country.

What did Nyamweya say?

“The last few months have seen so much happening in our football from the time the Sports CS Amina [Mohamed] disbanded the FKF office and formed a caretaker committee which has since been succeeded by the Transitional Committee,” Nyamweya told GOAL on Sunday.

“While all this has been happening, the world governing body Fifa reacted by suspending Kenya from international football due to what it termed as government interference.

Goal.

“As stakeholders, we understand the negative impact the suspension from international football has had on our game, but we do believe the action by the Sports CS was the start of a long-term and permanent solution to our football.”

Nyamweya continued: “But unfortunately, some cartels have emerged to bring further confusion in the whole scenario and we must call them out.

“It is clear some members of the Transitional committee and some self-seeking personalities, who have in the past shown interest in using the backdoor to run Kenyan football, have been misleading the FKF branch officials to form an interim committee to take over the running of football.

“This is in my view trying to find a shortcut which will sink us deeper into more problems. There is no shortcut to sorting our football mess and we must be ready to go the whole nine yards.

“There is no provision in the FKF statutes that allows for the formation of an interim Committee by the branches and any thought of this must be stopped forthwith.”

Nyamweya has further maintained the only solution for Kenyan football is for every stakeholder to be brought on board and support the initiative started by Amina.

‘Only solution is CS to work with Fifa’

“The only solution we have is to support the CS to work with Fifa and appoint a Normalisation Committee which will organise and set a roadmap to fresh elections right from grassroots,” Nyamweya continued.

Backpage.

“Any effort to manipulate this process will lead us back to where our problems started and history will judge us harshly. The government has taken a position that must be respected by all well-meaning stakeholders.

“To bring back sanity, we must support the process the government is following, work with Fifa and all stakeholders, set up a Normalisation Committee, and agree on a framework for fresh elections under both the Sports Act and Fifa statutes.

“We want a process that brings together all stakeholders from the grassroots to branch and County Football Associations including all active clubs in the country and not a few people charting us through a path of fresh anarchy in our game.

“It is time the views of each and every stakeholder are taken into account.”

The ban on Kenya has seen the women's national team Harambee Starlets miss out on the World Cup qualifiers early this year while recently the men’s team Harambee Stars was also kicked out of the 2023 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers.

Kenya had been pooled alongside Cameroon, Namibia, and Burundi.