Mwendwa’s cling to office akin to drowning man clutching a croc

It is said that a drowning person would always try to catch anything including the tail of a crocodile that would in no time swallow him alive. It is also said that desperate times call for desperate measures.

The current leadership of the Football Kenya Federation seems to be in that desperate situation.

They now appear to be concocting and forging statements using the names of referees and match commissioners. The federation knows only too well that the referees are in positions that would not allow them to dare refute the statement due to their vulnerable position as Fifa accredited match officials.

Protest and they risk losing favour for assignments and/or being removed from technical positions they hold at the federation as instructors.

Our attention has been drawn to the purported press statement released by the federation on Mach 26 in which they claimed FKF referees supported Fifa’s stand trashing the Sports Dispute Tribunal’s decision that nullified the football elections.

The refs said they stood to lose in many ways apart from training and international assignments.

Some of these officials purported to have issued the statement hold high positions in various government institutions and know very well that respect for the country’s laws, leave alone where they work, is not negotiable.

They would not blindly support the alleged Fifa stand, knowing that the same world organisation not only forbids taking sporting disputes to ordinary courts but to alternative dispute resolution bodies of which SDT is one.

The Kenya Football Referees Association (Kefora) wishes warn Nick Mwendwa and his cronies at the federation to desist from misusing the referees to support his failed leadership.

Active referees do not take sides in leadership wrangles at the federation.

It is therefore, a wrong and misguided act by the federation to try to coerce referees to whip support for Mwendwa’s failed and corrupt leadership.

The federation CEO/Secretary General Barry Otieno and his colleague communication colleague Ken Okaka, should have known that referees are like police officers who serve the Government of the day and do not takes sides. I therefore wish to caution them to desist from dragging the referees in the leadership wrangles at the federation.

Refs selectively picked

Our investigations reveal none of the referees was consulted and that by selectively picking names of only Fifa accredited referees and those listed as technical officials and/or those recently nominated to be Fifa/Caf match commissioners is clear indication of desperation to seek support from people they know will not openly come out to say no for fear of losing positions they hold.

The statement was full of inaccuracies, alleging David Gikonyo and Richard Obare are former Fifa accredited referees.

The fact of the matter is that these two officials never attained Fifa status accreditation in their football refereeing career but retired as Senior Class One referees.

The alleged statement attributed to the referees, technical instructors and the newly nominated match commissioners bears no signatures of these officials, a clear indication of forgery.

These are same similar desperate tactics the Kanu government used under the late President Moi to cling to power. The claim that our internationally accredited referees will suffer if Kenya is banned by Fifa is all nonsense and hogwash.

Kenya is a nation of 47 million people. What does it matter if a mere 50 or less people lose their international appointments for the sake of greater good for the entire nation?

As you have been told in Friday Nation by Hussein Terry, Senegal was banned and came back much stronger than before. What does it matter if we are banned? Under Mwendwa’s tenure Kenya will neither go to Cameroon nor Qatar

Ottieno is chairman, Kenya Football Referees Association [email protected]