Kenya Football Federation disbanded over alleged embezzlement of $2.17m fund

Kenya’s sports minister has on Thursday disbanded the local football federation and appointed a 15-member Caretaker Committee led by the country’s former head of anti-corruption.

The decision to disband the management of the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) now places the east African nation at the risk of inviting a FIFA ban as the simmering dispute between the government and the administration led by President Nick Mwendwa came to a head.

Sports Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed disbanded the management of FKF after receiving an audit report she had ordered a fortnight ago from the Sports Registrar Rose Wasike.

Sports Cabinet Secretary, Amina Mohamed
Justice (Rtd) Aaron Ringera, a former Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission boss, will head the Caretaker Committee that has retired local football icons JJ Masiga and Bobby Ogolla as members.

Others include former Kenya Rugby Union chairmen Mwangi Muthee and Richard Omwela, as well as Titus Kasuve, a seasoned administrator who was in the middle of the Kenya football wrangles of the mid-2000s that saw Kenya banned three times by FIFA between 2004 and 2006.

In disbanding the FKF, Mohamed urged FIFA to help the government to clean up the mess in Kenya’s football and not ban the country.

She had earlier snubbed summons by the Kenyan Senate where she was to appear before the Social and Welfare Committee chaired by Senator Johnstone Sakaja.

The minister ordered an audit into the finances of FKF after the federation was accused of embezzling over 244 million shillings (about 2.17 million U.S. dollars) of State money given to the men’s national team for the 2019 Africa Cup of Nation finals.

READ ALSO: 160 golfers to participate in 2021 CBN golf tournament in Abuja
Mohamed disbanded FKF on the day the team was due to play Uganda in a Qatar 2022 World Cup qualifier with Kenya already eliminated from the running for next year’s finals.