By lawyer Japheth Jef,
“FKF is not a registered organization. We do not have them in our records. I cannot supervise their activities because we do not know them. The CS cannot intervene in anything they do because this is a non-existent organization to us,” said Sports Registrar Wasike on 4th October 2015………………..
“FKF is in operation illegally, contrary to the 2013 Sports Act No.25 of 2013. They were supposed to be registered with the Ministry of Sports but up to now they are yet to do so,” Senator Mike Sonko said on 3rd December 2015 in Senate………………………… “……The truth is that FKF president (Sam Nyamweya) is in office illegally.
He was given notice to register the federation afresh in accordance with the new sports law but he is yet to comply,” Gordon Oluoch the Sports Commissioner said on 28th January 2016……………………………………………………………………….. ‘……so far Football Kenya Federation is neither a transited nor a registered organization. The August 2014 was the given deadline for transition under section 49 of the Sports Act No.25 of 2013 No.25 of 2013,therefore FKF is yet to be registered as bona fide Sports Organization.’ Hussein Wario said on 28th January 2016……………………………………………………………………..
The above excerpts, though from separate entities, are in consonance with one fact. That the FIFA accredited and Sam Nyamwea led organization is illegally operating in Kenya. That the persons herein quoted in allusion of FKF’s illegality are influential in the Sports industry is incontestable. However, it exposes dis ingenuity given that these dismissing its legality are in Government, its agents and or servants.
That they have effortlessly, yet notoriously, continued to collaborate with the same body. A Federation that has never shown an ounce of commitment in complying with the rule of law is no public secret. This triggers a plethora of questions that can only grow endless instead of attempting to answer them.
A fish rots from the head, so it is claimed. The Sports Act vests the Sports Cabinet Secretary with powers to foresee its due implementation. However, the current Secretary’s gross incompetence stinks to the core. The mere fact that he has abated and glorified the non-compliance casts him as a disinterested enemy of the sports regime.
Speculatively, Dr. Wario’s pastoralist culture that saw him grow as a nomad, must not mislead him into erroneously assuming that Sports Organizations within Kenya are the mismanaged, ratchet cattle dips that he was obsessed to while growing up as a clueless toddler. He might have hobnobbed from one grazing field to another in search of pasture lacking sufficient time and resources to neither play nor appreciate the significance of Sports but that does not justify his wanton recklessness in compliance to the said Act.
He is equipped with vast resources that can afford him the best legal advice to chart the way forward, but he is arrogantly in denial. The Sports regime in the County was even made easier by the promulgation of the Sports Act No.25 of 2013. Unfortunately, the foreseer has resorted to a casual two pronged mode of operation. Publicly barking against FKF but clandestinely supporting its activities.
Any keen observer must have noticed his aloofness. O’wise, if by the set deadline (August 2014) FKF had never complied, why would the Ministry wire monies to its accounts as late as November last year? The hue and cry from the general public amidst the Harambee Stars Cape Verde travel saga last year was hypocritical and self-inflicted perpetrated by the Ministry.
Every competent sane mind should have quipped, why would one wire monies to an illegal body? Such a single act of handing FKF money legitimizes its operations given that are its grappling with legality questions. However one may argue that the Cape Verde agenda involved a FIFA sanctioned duel advancing the old tired gaffe, ‘that FKF is the only body that is recognized by FIFA.’As witnessed in KFF-FKL wars from 2006-2010,its rational to never underscore GOK’s machinery.
All you need is its blessings .FKF may have temporarily traced its legitimacy from Article 36(1) of the Constitution of Kenya which upholds the right to freedom of association, which includes the right to form, join or participate in the activities of an association of any kind .
However Section 50(3) of the Sports Act No.25 of 2013 renders it a nugatory. It provides that, ‘an existing sports organization that does not apply for registration within the time prescribed in subsection 50(1) shall not be recognized as a sports organization.’
The Sports Act must be strictly adhered in spirit and to the later. The Government must forthwith cease handling FKF with velvet gloves. FKF is time barred and any consequential registration shall be perpetrating impunity and will be ferociously contested at all fronts. Due to public demand, Dr.Wario must equally be stopped.
P/S The opinion are that of Kenya High court lawyer Jef and do not represent the opinions of Soka25east.com