FKF elections to proceed but must adhere to the rules- SDT

Luqman Mahmoud

The Football Kenya Federation county elections will go on as planned as the sports tribunal waits to hear the case challenging it.

Speaking after upholding FKF’s decision to award Gor Mahia the 2019/20 league title, Tribunal chairman John Ohaga insisted that the elections will go on but they will not hesitate to nullify the exercise if found breaching the governing rules.

“The SDT has twice nullified the same process and it, therefore, doesn’t matter for it will suffer the fate as the other two for not living up to the set-out standards,” SDT chair John Ohaga ruled.

He added: “If the elections do not have the consent of the Sports Registrar, the Tribunal will not hesitate to strike down the whole process.”

The Tribunal has twice nullified the elections – in December last year and in March this year – for flouting the FKF statutes.

The county elections are slated for September 19 while the national polls are set for October 17.

The list of county candidates has already been published pending election venues for specific counties.

On their part, FKF through Senior Counsel Tom Ojienda, said they will accept the nullification if the petitioners have a case.

On September 29, the tribunal will listen to the matter in which two clubs namely Bondeni and Cheptiret plus other 10 petitioners want the election exercise to be stopped.

Other presidential candidates,  against the process, had earlier threatened to conduct their own elections, threatening to have two competing football associations.

They are former FKF president Sam Nyamweya, former long-serving Cecafa secretary general Nicholas Musonye and former FKF national treasurer Twaha Mbarak. The group took issue with the FKF elections board, accusing it of ”sanitising” a flawed process under duress.

The group labelled the nomination exercise held at Kandanda House a cosmetic process overseen by a ”compromised” lot.