Why coaches, refs were locked out of FKF elections

Kenya Football Coaches Association (Kefoca) chairperson John Bob Oyugi during a past interview. PHOTO | FILE |

What you need to know:

  • Kenya Elite Coaches differed with Kefoca, who were backing another contestant — Gor Semelang’o.
  • Kefwa too have has not held elections since 2015.

The Kenya Football Referees Association (Kefora), Kenya Football Coaches Association (Kefoca) and the Kenya Footballers Welfare Association (Kefwa) will not participate in the upcoming Football Kenya Federation (FKF) elections.

According to FKF, the three bodies have not held their own elections for a while and are therefore not eligible to participate in the exercise.

Kefora last held elections in 2012 with GMT Otieno elected as the chairman but a group led by Wycliffe Ogutu went to court to challenge the exercise and the matter has dragged in court since then.

Otieno, who is also the Kenyan Premier League head of Technical Services, Safety and Security, admits the same.

"We received correspondence from the federation and responded. Kefora will not participate in the elections and no one else should purport to represent the association in the election. There are internal issues that are still in court and we have to respect the process,” Otieno told Nation Sport.

Kefoca on the other hand appears to be moribund.

They last held elections in 2015 but their secretary general Bob Oyugi, insists it is unfair for FKF to lock them out of the elections.

“It is not their mandate to check which sports association has conducted elections or not. We were from the onset registered under the societies act but with the Sports Act that now guides the operations of all sports organisations, we have to change a lot of things and that cannot happen overnight.

“We must have representation in every county and this is something we have been working on. However we have an Interim Certificate of Registration from the Sports Registrar mandating us to operate and therefore it is not in order for FKF to bar us from participating in the election.”

Interestingly, during the 2015 elections, a group calling itself Kenya Elite Coaches, under the leadership Tusker coach Robert Matano, endorsed Nick Mwendwa who was then campaigning to oust Sam Nyamweya as the FKF President.

Kenya Elite Coaches differed with Kefoca, who were backing another contestant — Gor Semelang’o.

Kefwa too have has not held elections since 2015.