Fifa should stop barking and bite to help clean up Kenyan football

What you need to know:

  • The Football Kenya Federation elections are just around the corner, and as usual, every single rough beast is gearing to take over the reins
  • Two groups have already rushed to court against Fifa statutes that bar football disputes from being taken to ordinary courts
  • We only wish the protagonists should be banned from all football activities for life

“The time has come,' the Walrus said, to talk of many things: Of shoes — and ships — and sealing-wax — Of cabbages — and kings —And why the sea is boiling hot — And whether pigs have wings.”

Those were motley unrelated topics that the greedy walrus mixed up altogether. It is a long way of saying the time has come to talk of nonsense.

One may wonder why we, too, have to invoke the right to peddle nonsense in this pages; but if anyone follows the state of our sports in this country, he or she will comprehend our predicament.

We have been compelled by conditions that lower the bar of thought to the extent that we begin to resemble the faces that run football in this state. The Football Kenya Federation elections are just around the corner, and as usual, every single rough beast is gearing to take over the reins and ride roughshod on football. They are strongly attracted to that office with passionate intensity.

We expected this situation, but we did not think it would take the rough and reckless turn that it has. Two groups have already rushed to court against Fifa statutes that bar football disputes from being taken to ordinary courts. Other hotheads are already in the corridors of the Sports Disputes Tribunal with the same complaints.

The crux of the matter is the composition of the Football Kenya Federation’s Election Board and the Electoral Code for the upcoming elections.

While those out in the cold feel that the ground is skewed to favour the incumbent, other hopefuls must be smiling, and probably laughing like some cartoon character with a sinister motive in some dark room!

The FKF Election Board that sparked the tiff cannot leave those positions. They just cannot solve the matter by stepping aside, and that is because they are simply being Kenyans. They would rather even the country ceases to play football altogether, if they cannot earn something from it. That is the current stalemate. Events are moving very fast and the outcome has the roar of a dragon! What are the consequences of this bickering? Well, a few days ago, the world football governing body, Fifa sent a strongly worded letter to the federation assuring Kenya that she shall be banned or heavy sanctions piled upon her already brittle back!

If that happens, the national team shall be barred from all international games, the Harambee starlets - who are cash-strapped- shall cease to struggle for the qualification for Olympics, teams like Gor Mahia and Bandari shall be out of their present continental campaigns… the list is long and scary.

We are used to Fifa’s strongly worded letters and warnings. We only wish the protagonists should be banned from all football activities for life. That would suffice.