Meeting aborts over ‘security’
What you need to know:
- But Police say meeting venue was ‘well secured’ and safety of all assured.
- 78 delegates expected, but 400 turn up.
The much-awaited Football Kenya Federation Annual General Meeting failed to take place on Friday at Sameta Lodge in Kisii County.
FKF president Sam Nyamweya abruptly called off the meeting citing security concerns. The football boss charged the mood was not conducive for the meeting that was expected to be attended by 78 delegates drawn from the 20 FKF branches around the country.
“We have postponed today’s AGM after consultations with my National Executive Committee (NEC). The FKF top brass is going to meet in a week’s time to fix a date for a new AGM,” Nyamweya told journalists who had turned up to cover the highly anticipated session.
Nyamweya complained that the venue had been invaded by more than 400 people instead of the few legitimate delegates needed at the venue.
“We are seeing strange faces not seen in the Kenyan football scene before,” he charged. Nyamweya expressed fears of violence if the meeting was allowed to continue.
'COWARDLY ACT'
But a group of delegates opposed to Nyamweya dismissed the postponement as a “cowardly act”.
“Calling off the AGM on security grounds is a mockery… you can’t bring us to your home turf then you ran away, but writing is on the wall,” said David Gikaria, Nakuru Town East MP who is also an FKF official.
He said: “A majority of delegates have formed a sub-committee to steer ahead the troubled Kenyan football sector within the shortest time.
“Delegates, who have travelled from as far as Mandera have been today abandoned here without logistics for upkeep by their leaders yet we had a budget for a function like this,” added the MP.
Gikaria warned that a new leadership was set to take over FKF. He said the meeting venue was treated as a secret affair “and somebody is continuously seeking to run FKF as a personal property”.
Gucha OCPD Richard Muguai dismissed the claims of insecurity at the venue as “baseless”.
“We did our work as required and the place was well secured, except we were not told the genuine delegates to allow in and we could not eject everybody because, since this is a hotel, there could have been other visitors on private errands,” he said.
“We have not even been formally told even the meeting has been called off… I am learning it from the media team,” said the police boss.
