Sammy Shollei: Why we sought to be enjoined in case

Former Football Kenya Federation vice president Sammy Shollei at a press conference in Nairobi on June 19, 2012.

Photo credit: File | Nation Media Group

What you need to know:

  • Shollei and Shikanda were each slapped with a six-year suspension for taking football matters to ordinary courts of law.
  • FKF did write to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga last September to emphasize the importance of keeping football matters off ordinary courts.

Former Football Kenya Federation officials Sammy Shollei and Dan Shikanda say they opted to be enjoined in the ongoing court case involving the domestic football governing body and Kenyan Premier League limited, so as to expose the double standards applied in conflict resolutions.

The duo were each slapped with a six-year suspension from football activities by FKF mid last year, for taking football matters to ordinary courts of law.

While the FKF’s ruling against the two is consistent with world body Fifa’s statutes, several stakeholders alongside Shollei and Shikanda now say they are surprised that the FKF has itself gone to the courts barely seven months after handing out the bans.

“I have instructed my legal team to find out why the federation handed me and Shikanda a lengthy suspension for allegedly going to court and then it goes ahead and goes to the same courts,” Sholei, who was overwhelmingly elected as the federation’s vice chaiman during polls in October 2011, said.

Shikanda, who was FKF’s Nairobi chairman at the time of his suspension further quipped: “FKF are now in court. What rules or statutes are they using?”

FKF did write to Chief Justice Willy Mutunga last September to emphasize the importance of keeping football matters off ordinary courts.