Football.
Delegates of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) in Homa Bay County have called for measures be put in place to ensure transparency in the federations elections next month.
Officials of various clubs in the county said that they were apprehensive over unknown persons who have infiltrated their lists of delegates. Joshua Ong’olo, the team Manager of Aros FC in Karachuonyo Constituency complained that a mysterious name had been inserted in the list of his club officials.
Job Oreta, the coach of Kalanding FC in Kasipul Constituency also confirmed that they had noticed the name of a stranger delegate. “The man has never been a delegate in my club. I don’t know how his name came to be in our club register,” Oreta said. Peter Orinde, the Chairman of Blue Rangers FC in Karachuonyo said he found the name of another person as the chairman.
They called on the FKF leadership in the county to address the issues. “We appeal to FKF leadership in our county to act swiftly and address these issues,” Orinde said. They said that they have recorded statements at Homa Bay Police Station to begin investigations into the matter.
They said more than 15 clubs have similar complaints in Homa Bay County. FKF aspirant for the county Chairperson Tom Ogol said that they were fearing that election irregularities were imminent. Ogol argued that there are some aspirants who were manipulating the list of delegates to enable them to get unfair advantage.
“These anomalies cut across the county. I suspect there are people who want to create lists of delegates who are loyal to them so that they can be elected easily. But we are not going to accept the practice,” Ogol said. However, the FKF Chairman in Homa Bay County dismissed the allegations saying none of them had presented grievances to his office or the federation’s bodies mandated to handle complaints.
“The club officials who are complaining have not notified my office. They have also not presented their concerns in our complaints desk, appeals committee or sports disputes tribunal,” Ogweno said. He said the complaints were motivated by vested interests of a candidate. “I think these clubs are being pushed by a candidate who feels that the delegates are unfriendly to him. This is propaganda and let the clubs which are complaining use the official procedure to seek redress,” Ogweno said.