The Kenya Sports Tribunal has asked FIFA to appoint a Normalization committee to run the Football Kenya Federation.

In a two-and-a-half hours ruling delivered Tuesday afternoon via video link because of the government’s ban on public gatherings to mitigate the coronavirus infection, SDT chairman John Ohaga cancelled the county elections held last Saturday on the premise that the electoral laws (Code) governing the exercise had locked out potential candidates. Ohaga also cancelled the national polls.

“The purpose of competitive elections is to offer voters a choice between different philosophies, manifestos and visions so that they can decide who their leaders will be for the term as defined in the constitution. When such choice is taken away from the voters, then it cannot be said that the ascendancy into the office of the sole candidate who meets the criteria is legitimate,” ruled Ohaga.

“For this reason, the Tribunal has no hesitation in striking down the provisions of section 4 of the Code as being unreasonable and designed to lock out potential aspirants and is a gross violation of the principle of free and fair elections contemplated by Section 46 (6) of the Act as read with the paragraph of the Second Schedule.”

The FKF say that they will abide by the Judgment and share the ruling with FIFA.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF)’s secretary-general Barry Otieno has however maintained that president Nick Mwendwa will remain in office until a solution is found.

“Football Kenya Federation has been informed of the Sports Dispute Tribunal’s (SDT) decision to cancel the FKF elections and end the term of the federation’s National Executive Committee,”  

“In the meantime, the FKF president remains in office and will continue to discharge his duties, as per the FKF constitution, this even as the federation continues to engage Fifa on the way forward.”

The polls were set for March 27 even though the exercise was in doubt owing to the ban on public gatherings and use of sports facilities by the government in the wake of the coronavirus infections.

Kelvin Trudeau Musako

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