Sports CS Amina Mohamed terms FIFA suspension blessing in disguise

NAIROBI, Kenya, Mar 3 – Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed has termed Kenya’s suspension by world football governing body FIFA as a blessing in disguise, saying it will give the caretaker committee time to continue with the mandate of reforms it was given.

Appearing before the National Assembly Committee on Sports on Thursday afternoon, Amina said she was surprised with FIFA’s decision to hand Kenya an indefinite suspension despite having been informed of everything that had been undertaken.

FIFA slapped Kenya with an indefinite suspension last week due to Government interference after the CS last year disbanded the Federation and installed a caretaker committee to run football affairs.

“It (FIFA suspension) came as a surprise after months of me providing reports to FIFA. But it has come as a blessing in disguise to allow us finish our reforms,” Amina told the Committee.

She added that the Committee already has a draft constitution in place and will submit it to the world football governing body once it is complete.

She has also affirmed that the Aaron Ringera led committee will complete its mandate, shutting out the door on handing back football matters to the beleaguered Federation.

“We intend for the Committee to conclude its work in the next two months and submit the draft constitution to FIFA which will then allow for us to hold new elections,” Amina said.

She had also stated; “We made it clear in the message we passed to FIFA that we don’t expect them to take over the role of government to ensure proper management of public resources. We had a big problem in getting reports on the use of public funds from FKF. I came back from AFCON and I realized if we didn’t put our house in order we will be in trouble,” the CS told Parliament.

But, it will be interesting to see whether FOFA will give audience to a new constitution and elections carried out by the Committee.

In its letter to the FKF CEO Barry Otieno last week, FIFA through Secretary General Fatma Samoura made it clear that the unconditional stance on lifting the suspension will be the retraction of the Caretaker Committee as well as the return of the mandate to run football to the FKF Secretariat.

As Amina and the Government clamped down on former boss Nick Mwendwa last year, the business magnate and owner of Kariobangi Sharks FC stepped down from his role as Federation boss and left the mandate to deputy Doris Petra.

Despite that, the CS still maintained that the caretaker committee will run the game.

However in an interesting twist early this week, the Committee has swung back the running of the FKF Division Two Leagues to the Federation, despite a stern warning at the start of the year that no one else, apart from them, would run the affairs of football.