NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 16 – Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has given the Ministry of Sports two weeks to conduct an inspection of the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) accounts and report the findings in two weeks.
This as pressure continues to mount on the Federation’s accounts, coming after the Auditor General flagged a Sh11mn payment to FKF boss Nick Mwendwa without proper documentation.
The Federation boss has come under severe scrutiny over the past few days especially after the performance of the national team Harambee Stars and a hiring of an underperformer as a coach, Kenya losing 6-0 on aggregate to Mali in the World Cup qualifiers.
Mwendwa’s further comments last week on a show on NTV hinting that Kenya’s failings at the World Cup qualifiers were down to a lack of talent have increasingly added pressure on the Federation boss.
And now, CS Amina has seemingly started to tighten the noose on the Federation boss serving his second term in office after his re-election early this year.
In a statement, CS Amina said; “{pursuant to Section 52(1) of the Sports Act (2013), I have directed the Registrar of Sports to undertake the inspection of Football Kenya Federation in accordance to the provisions of the Act.”
“She is expected to commence the exercise from 18th October, 2021 for a period of less than two weeks and submit a report to my office on or before November 2 2021. The Ministry will assign the required Technical Officers and any other support required to perform this exercise.”
Section 52 of the Sports Act states: “The Registrar may, at any time, or if so directed by the Cabinet Secretary, cause an inspection to be made by any person authorized by the Registrar, in writing, of any sports organization, branch, sub-branch, organ, or any person associated with any sports organization, and of its or his books, accounts and records.”
The Act further directs that all books of accounts and documents needed during the period of inspection shall not be moved from the Federation offices and the officials must fully comply to any needs by the inspectors.
This comes just a day after the High Court turned down a request from Mwendwa to give a permanent injunction against any investigation on himself or the Federation by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations and the Director of Public Prosecution.
In October last year, Mwendwa had sought to gag the DPP and DCI from investigating him over a complaint to the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit (BFIU) on direct transfer of millions of shillings from the federation to his personal accounts.
Mwendwa, through his lawyer Tom Ojienda had sued DCI and the DPP alongside journalist Milton Nyakundi, who had filed the complaint with the Banking Fraud Investigations Unit.
In his ruling on Thursday, High Court Judge Justice James Makau dismissed Mwendwa’s case saying it lacked merit, was premature and speculative.
“I therefore find the petitioners’ prayer for an order of a permanent injunction prohibiting the DCI and DPP summoning, investigating, charging or prosecuting the petitioners with respect to financial management of FKF is not justified in the circumstances of this case. The instant petition is premature and purely speculative,” Justice Makau’s judgement read.
Mwendwa had argued that the summons by the DCI amounted to a violation of his fundamental rights as enshrined in the Constitution and that the procedure to summon him for statement recording had contravened the Fair Administrative Action.
The FKF Boss had also argued that Nyakundi was not a member of the Federation and thus lacked the locus standi to query any transactions that had already been cleared by the Federation’s executive.
In his ruling however, Justice Makau said that Nyakundi had a right, as per the Sports Act of 2013, to seek any information or query transactions.