Kenya's sport minister acted in excess of his powers, says court
Each new day seems to bring a new twist to the drama of Kenyan football. Within the space of one short week, the High Court in Kenya has overturned the sports minister’s attempts to dissolve Kenya’s Football Federation (KFF) and the re-instated KFF officials have immediately moved to suspend the KFF president and fire the secretary general. Meanwhile the Munro Probe Committee does not appear to have begun its work.
In its ruling last Monday, the High Court said that the sports minister Maina Kamanda had acted in excess of his powers when he dissolved the Kenyan Football Federation and replaced it with a caretaker committee. The Registrar of Societies was also in the wrong when the office unlawfully registered strangers as officials of the KFF and removed the names of legitimate officials.
Sports minister Kamanda did not immediately accept the decision and announced that he would appeal the court order. According to the newspaper Daily Nation, he told a member of parliament that “as far as I am concerned, the KFF team stands suspended and the caretaker committee I appointed will be in charge until I am served [with the court order]”.
However, according to Kenya Times, Kamanda also lost the appeal in the Constitutional and Judicial Review court. Still, the minister wows to continue the fight in court to the very end in order to get KFF officials out of the sport.
“These people are a disgrace. They should not even show their faces in public! We can not beat Uganda, Tanzania and even Eritrea beat us,” Kamanda said during a speech at a local half marathon yesterday.
KFF suspends chairman and fires secretary general
This weekend the re-instated members of KFF’s National Executive Committee met and decided to suspend chairman Alfred Sambu and fire secretary general Dan Omino.
11 out of 15 members voted in favour of the move, and the KFF’s new acting chairman Mohamed Hatimy explains that the decision was aimed at implementing the Cairo agreements which call on Kenya to restore order in Kenyan football.
“We have already communicated these decisions to FIFA and we hope their reply will be favourable forKenya to return to international football again,” Hatimy told the BCC News.
Munro Probe Committee may not have started working Meanwhile the Munro Probe Committee does not appear to have started its work on investigating Bob Munro’s football activities.
Bob Munro has told the website kenyafootball.com that he has yet to receive formal summons to appear before the committee and provide evidence or clarifications with regards to the allegations levelled against him.
But if the committee wants to fulfil its mandate, time is getting short. kenyafootball.com explains that the committee was given a one month mandate at the beginning of November and was supposed to submit its findings to the minister of sport after the end of its 30-day term.
Play the Game’s petition to support Bob Munro and speak against the government’s plans to deport him has attracted world wide attention. The petition will be open for another week and then the signatures and supporting letters will be forwarded to the relevant authorities in Kenya.