The Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) has on Tuesday stopped the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) elections and called world football governing body, FIFA, to appoint a normalisation committee to run Kenyan football.
The Tribunal chairman John Ohaga delivered the ruling via video conference due to the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic, declaring an article in the FKF electoral code that locked out a sizeable chunk of its members, null and void.
FKF was set to go into national presidential polls on March 27 but Ohaga also stated that the current National Executive Committee members have no authority to conduct the exercise as their tenure in national office ended in February.
This is the second time that the FKF elections have been stopped by the tribunal. In December 2019, Ohaga cancelled the elections stating that the Electoral Board was not well constituted.
Ohaga cited that electoral code did not meet the public participation threshold, with Elina Shiveka pronounced to have been ineligible to sit at the Electoral Board.
FKF then went to Sport Tribunal stating that Sports Registrar’s office had laid down conditions were not realistic and retrogressive to sporting federations.
A Normalisation Committee to run the affairs of Kenyan football was the solution found by Ohaga stating it’s the best of the three options he had within the law going forward.
In December, FIFA issued an ultimatum that FKF must hold its elections by the end of March but the government insisted that the polls must be conducted in conformity with both the FIFA Statutes and Sports Act.
Current FKF president Nick Mwendwa is seeking for a second term and has been accused by opponents for blocking competition by hoarding all endorsements from the 20 branches, leaving would-be opponents without a way to the ballot.
