Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa will now exercise supervisory functions only as he waits for the new office to be constituted, Sports Disputes Tribunal has ruled.
The decision will now force Mwendwa to work without executive powers after National Executive Committee expired on February 10.
Citing Article 43 (2) of the FKF Consitution the SDT Chairman John Ohaga said Mwendwa cannot be cited for contempt in relation to activities undertaken in the course of carrying out his duties such as FKF’s spokesman as he still remains FKF’s legal representative as well as supervisor to the institution’s secretariat.
Federation’s CEO Barry Otieno still remains on the hooks and risks a 7 year jail term if found to have lied to the tribunal over a letter dated March 18 and written to Fifa, that the Tribunal claims undermined the judicial institution’s authority.
The Tribunal’s chairman, Ohaga, ordered probe into the document after Otieno refuted being the author of the letter addressed to Fifa’s Veron Masengo- Omba from Congo.
“The panel directs the secretary to the Tribunal to take appropriate steps to bring this contested letter of 18th March 2020 addressed to Fifa to the attention of the appropriate authorities and to request that a full investigation be conducted into its authenticity and authorship or otherwise, so that necessary further steps can be taken depending on the outcome of the investigations,” Ohaga ruled.
SDT says it has legal mechanisms to deal with cases where its authority and dignity is undermined and if the investigations find Otieno guilty of the offence of perjury then they will the tribunal will be guided by section 110 of the Penal Code.
Section 110 states that any person who commits perjury is liable to imprisonment for seven years while section 11 of the Oaths and Statutory Declaration also states that if any person knowingly and willfully makes any statement which is false in a material particular in a statutory declaration, he shall be guilty of an offence and liable to imprisonment for a term not exceeding two years.
The ruling that reduces Mwendwa to ‘a ceremonial president’ dismissed three other applications filed against Mwendwa, Otieno and FKF.
The tribunal said it had dealt with the issue on Sports CS Amina Mohammed forming a Normalization Committee. In March 17 the tribunal said it did not find it commendable for the CS who represents the government to interfere with the FKF affairs.
The tribunal declined to cite NEC officials; Mwendwa, Doris Petra, Chris Amimo, Muriithi Nabea, David Njoroge, Tony Kweya, Mohamed Mula, Raphael Mwalungo, David Gikaria and Joseph Andere -for carrying out activities for FKF.
Tribunal’s Ohaga said Milton Nyakundi and form FKF boss Sam Nyamweya did not produce concrete evidence and serve them with the suit papers.
The two only produced screenshots of the federation’s website showing pictures of the NEC officials participating in some activities.
About the petitioners asking the Tribunal to issue orders protecting FKF assets from being looted, Ohaga said they were unable to discern any concrete evidence to support allegations.
“The evidence offered is based on conjecture and is such that no decision-making body, properly applying its mind to the facts presented to it, could possibly reach the conclusion that the allegations made meet the evidentiary threshold which would require a response from the Federation,” Ohaga said in a ruling.
In that case, over 50 football clubs wanted the CS Amina to form a committee that would be furnished with an audited report on fkf assets and liabilities.
The clubs also wanted the tribunal to order National Transport Authority (NTSA) to allow caveats to be placed on all vehicles belonging to FKF as a way of preserving them as they await for a solution on the leadership impasse.
They claimed that assets risk being wasted since the term of office for Mwendwa and other officials expired in February and Fifa turned down the tribunal’s request to appoint a normalisation committee.
