How much Harambee Stars players got from Sh244m windfall

What you need to know:

  • According to Otieno, the joyriders were in Cairo drawing allowances “since it’s a policy of the federation”.
  • “It is a policy of the federation that it caters for accommodation for the branch officials who can pay their air tickets to attend a major tournament. The NEC is the highest decision-making organ of the federation so they had to attend, especially given Kenya was returning after a 15-year absence,” clarified Otieno.

Harambee Stars players and technical bench members cumulatively shared Sh60 million in allowances while in France and Egypt, which is about 25 per cent of the Sh244 million windfall.

Before they left for France in May, each player received Sh250,000 while those who made the final squad to Egypt received a further Sh500,000.

That was not all.

Players and other technical bench members who were present for at least three qualifiers were given Sh960,822 as part of the Sh50 million pledge by Deputy President William Ruto.

From this amount, FKF president Nick Mwendwa is on record saying Sh38 million would be shared by the team, but only Sh35 million was shared, while FKF used the balance of Sh3 million to settle Migne’s bonus (for helping the team qualify for Afcon) as per his contract.

Therefore, Migne, who drew a monthly salary of Sh2 million excluding other perks, was paid a total bonus amount of Sh3.96 million from the Sh50 million cash award pledged by the DP.

But two players who travelled with the national team to France and later made the Cairo trip told Nation Sport that they are yet to receive their bonuses in full.

The players were promised Sh250,000 for every win in Cairo but four months later, the federation is yet to honour their pledge.

“We are still owed our winning bonuses for the Tanzania match. When we were in Cairo, we were told that they would be settled after three months but when we ask for the money we are always ignored,” said one player, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

Another player, who also sought anonymity, revealed that they are still owed part of the Sh50 million pledge by DP Ruto.

“Initially we were told that the players and staff would share Sh35 million while the federation would retain Sh15 million to foot their bills. But we negotiated with the president (Nick Mwendwa) who agreed to add us Sh3 million to share among ourselves. However, we were told the money would be given to us in France, which never happened,” he said.

‘No pending allowances’

FKF CEO Barry Otieno acknowledged that the team is owed winning bonuses for their triumph over Tanzania, but denied allegations that there are other pending allowances.

“No player has been paid the winning bonus for the Tanzania match. During Afcon, Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed promised the players that they would be given Sh10 million to share among themselves if they won any match, but we have not yet received this amount,” he said.

Interestingly, FKF ferried almost its entire secretariat to Egypt, with Mwendwa and then CEO Robert Muthomi even taking along their personal assistants while NEC members and several branch officials were also in Cairo on taxpayers’ money.

According to Otieno, the joyriders were in Cairo drawing allowances “since it’s a policy of the federation”.

“It is a policy of the federation that it caters for accommodation for the branch officials who can pay their air tickets to attend a major tournament. The NEC is the highest decision-making organ of the federation so they had to attend, especially given Kenya was returning after a 15-year absence,” clarified Otieno.