FKF audit lands CS Amina in trouble with Senate

The simmering heat following Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed’s order to audit Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on Tuesday extended to the floor of the Senate, with the law makers raising questions over its motive.

It is Makueni Senator Mutula Kilonzo Jr who sought an “urgent” statement from the Senate Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, on the audit which he found to be “impromptu.”

Beyond the FKF audit question, Senators who ventilated on the matter also tasked the Committee to summon Amina to explain how she has been managing sports funds under her docket.

"In the statement, the chairperson should state reasons why Football Kenya, a statutory body under the law was not issued with a notice of inspection citing nature of the inspection, the documents required, material or evidence relied upon by the Cabinet Secretary in making the decision.

 “The statement should state whether the CS is aware that the said inspection team largely composed of officers from the Criminal Investigation Department and National Intelligence Service," Kilonzo Jr asked, ending his 12-point statement with disclaimer that if Amina’s will prevails, Kenya was set for a ban by world football governing body FIFA.

“Allow me to say this madam Speaker that the importance of this statement in one sentence, is that the Cabinet Secretary intends to disband FKF based on this alleged inspection and therefore may lead to a ban of football in Kenya. This statement is therefore very urgent.”

Kilonzo Jr’s statement came amid claims that Amina is set to announce a Normalization Committee to run football in the country, which would contravene FIFA’s principle of non-interference hence the said ban.

Nairobi Senator Johnson Sakaja, who chairs the Senate Standing Committee on Labour and Social Welfare warned against disbanding FKF.

“No one person should take an action that will lead to Kenya being banned by FIFA. The Cabinet Secretary for Sports should appear before the Senate on Thursday and we are immediately signing off a letter barring her from taking action against FKF,” Sakaja averred.

Elgeiyo Marakwet Senator Kipchumba Murkomen was curious on why only FKF has come under the scrutiny of the Cabinet Secretary among other federations.

“We are told that the Ministry wants to investigate FKF, particularly single out FKF but they cannot demonstrate to the Republic of Kenya how much resources have been put to the federation. We cannot ask to receive that which we have not invested Madam Speaker,” he said.

Bungoma Senator Moses Wetangula on his part requested for a comprehensive enquiry by the Committee on how the Ministry of Sports is managing affairs in general.

“This question is very important, and I want to urge my distinguished nephew to broaden the inquiry not only on football but sports in this country. FKF is now limping, but instead of getting support, we are now embarking on punitive and malicious investigation against it,” Wetangula wondered.

Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei asked CS Amina to resign for watching orchestrating “mega corruption.”

“In the Sports Fund, one of the items they have allocated is Sh.31 million for woodball. Woodball means 'mchezo wa mbao' yet there are several stadiums that have gobbled millions of money yet they do not even meet FIFA standards. And, now the same stadiums have been banned. They cannot even host friendly matches,” Cherargei paused.

Garissa Senator Abdulkadir Haji, however, came to the defense of CS Amina saying that the Sports Ministry had good intentions of ordering for the auditing of FKF.

“I fail to understand why the individuals at FKF are against the audit. Instead of calling for the resignations of individuals, maybe we should to tackle FKF based on the rules and regulations of FIFA so that as a country, we don’t fall foul with operations of FIFA,” the youthful Senator said, noting FKF has failed to live to Kenyan’s expectations as far as developing the sport is concerned.

On Monday, FKF CEO Barry Otieno said the federation smelt a rat as the audit took just “roughly eight hours” yet they were supposed to go through volumes of documents of over five years transactions.

According to Otieno, a hurried audit only signaled to a predetermined decision.

Amina last week told the National Parliament that her move to audit FKF was necessitated by concerns by football stakeholders, promising to act depending on the findings of the audit committee.