Several officials of the Football Kenya Federation sub-branches have resolved they do not recognize the electoral process, saying the Special General Meeting that sanctioned the exercise was illegally constituted.
During a meeting held in Nairobi, representatives from at least 25 sub-branches contended that the “notice convening the meeting did not comply with the mandatory timelines required by the Constitution of FKF”.
“The Special General Meeting of 28th January 2020 was not convened and constituted in accordance with the FKF Constitution 2012(or even the proposed FKF Constitution 2017) because […] The branch officials who attended the meeting were not eligible to attend as their term of office had expired on the 26th January 2020,” they said in a resolution signed by the representatives.
“Accordingly the resolutions passed at the said meeting are null and void and of no legal effect.”
Full compliance to Sports Act 2013
They have also called on the Sports Registrar not to bow to pressure to allow the FKF elections to take place without full compliance to the Sports Act.
They aver that the electoral process is flawed as, contrary to the ruling of the Sports Disputes Tribunal of 3 December 2019, the electoral code and the electoral board had been respectively passed and appointed without public participation. They say, sub-branches and clubs participating in their respective leagues did not participate in the process.
They have applied to be enjoined as interested parties in petition 3 of 2020, filed by the FKF national office challenging the validity of directives of the Sports Registrar, requiring that the elections can only proceed once at least county sports associations have been registered.
FKF have sued the registrar at the SDT, an application they filed on 3rd February 2020 and were directed to advertise in the newspaper as a way of calling for interested parties to file their applications. The hearing begins on 19th February 2020, a day before the expiry of the public notice which the federation published through their lawyers – Litoro & Omwebu advocates.
“We also take issue with Section 2 of the 2020 FKF Electoral Code which unfairly and unreasonably denies the petitioners/applicants and a significant proportion of the FKF membership the right to nominate candidates and vote at the 2020 FKF elections as contemplated by paragraph (d) of the second schedule to the Sports Act 2013 as read with Article 81 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010,” they submit in their court papers.
“We are unhappy with the eligibility criteria in Section 4 of the 2020 Electoral Code as it unreasonable and designed to lock out potential aspirants and is therefore a gross violation of the principle of free and fair elections contemplated by Paragraph d of the second schedule to the Sports Act as read with article 81 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010.”
They further raise issue with the appeals process, which they claim is not independent as required by the law.
“The Appeals process proposed in the electoral code does not meet the threshold of independence and impartiality contemplated in article 47 and 81 of the Constitution of Kenya 2010, FIFA Statutes, the Statutes of FKF and FIFA Standard Electoral Code, or indeed, the impugned FKF Electoral Code itself.”
