All set for FKF repeat elections ahead of SDT ruling

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) elections for County officials will go on as planned on Saturday, only four days to the ruling of the federation versus Sports Registrar case on the polls.

The Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) will on March 17 rule if the electoral process set to culminate on March 27 with the national elections, including that of the president should go on without federation’s full conformity with the Sports Act of 2013.

The SDT will also determine on various issues raised by interested parties, who have among other queries, questioned the FKF amended Electoral Code of 2019 will also impact on the way forward regarding the elections.

Nonetheless, the federation is slowing down on nothing, with FKF Electoral Board on Friday rolling out Saturday’s plans for elections.

“All polling stations in the contesting counties will open at 9am and close at 5pm, and will be under tight security of the Kenya Police allowing no person to access the stations without proper accreditation. The counting of votes will be done at the polling stations with the tally sheet pinned on the wall and scanned to the Central returning officer, Ali Hassan Kauleni,” said Electoral Board’s Chairperson Kentice Tikolo during a Friday briefing.

“The provisional results of the county elections will be published on Monday, March 16, to open a window for disputes if any, concerning the elections before publishing the final results,” added Tikolo.

Further, the Special General Meeting (SGM) for the proper voting in the national elections has been formally communicated to delegates by the federation.

In a letter sent to delegates at the national level and signed by FKF General Secretary Barry Otieno, the agenda for the meeting – Declaration from the General Secretary that the SGM is properly constituted and roll call; Presidents Speech and Elections, was outlined.

Delegates invited to the meeting include all the 48 FKF Counties, 18 KPL Clubs, 10 NSL Clubs, 10 Division One League Clubs, 3 WPL clubs, 2 Women Division One League Clubs and one representative each from the Players’, Coaches’ and Referees’ associations.

The 48th County branch is a result of Nairobi’s two main branches, whose composition was as a result of the number of teams within the county.

With the new structure, only members who will have won in the county elections set for Saturday shall be deemed to be the true representatives of the counties, with each county and club being represented by one delegate.

The repeat County elections will determine who votes at the national elections, where 11 positions in the National Executive Committee (NEC) are up for grabs.

Poignantly, the December 7, 2019 elections were cancelled only four days to the event, by the SDT.

If the tribunal rules in favour of FKF this time round, it will mean president Nick Mwendwa will be elected unopposed as his competitors boycotted the nomination process.