FKF caretaker team must step up its game now

CS Sports Amina Mohamed and CEO DP Keith Pelly during Magical Kenya Open at Muthaiga Golf Club. March 4, 2022. [Jonah Onyango, Standard]

It’s exactly four months since Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed disbanded the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) and installed a caretaker committee to run Kenyan football.

However, there is little to write home about – apart from poor officiating and tug of wars between the committee and FKF branch chairmen. The sport is no longer the beautiful game Kenyans loved deeply.

On Wednesday, FKF branch bosses snubbed a meeting with the caretaker committee at Nyayo Stadium. Caretaker committee chairman Justice (Rtd) Aaron Ringera had invited the 48 FKF branch leaders for a stakeholders’ meeting and, sadly, only officials from two branches turned up.

The meeting was meant to brief the FKF branch and sub-branch officials on the current status of Kenyan football and chart the way forward after world football governing body Fifa suspended Kenya from all football activities on February 24.

That painted a bleak future for our football. Kenya, ranked 103 in the world by FIFA, still has huge ground to cover to reclaim her footing. We did not reach the knock-out stages of the African Cup of Nations qualifiers in which Senegal won.  

In recent years, we have been struggling to bring back Harambee Stars to its past glory, but all in vain. We are still confronting football’s menace – hooliganism. The 2021-2022 season has been shrouded with violent scenes, a problem that has been disrupting the local football league for decades now.

Chaotic scenes were witnessed in the abandoned clash between Gor Mahia and bottom-placed Vihiga Bullets last month at Kasarani Stadium.

Gor Mahia were leading 1-0 before hell broke loose just at the stroke of half time.

A scuffle between Gor fans and security officers ensued in what forced centre referee to call off the match. Vihiga Bullets declined to resume play over security concerns. Three people sustained injuries.

This came after chaos marred the clash between Kakamega Homeboyz and Bandari at Bukhungu in November when referee and his assistants were confronted at halftime over a controversial penalty he had handed to the hosts.

Through the 2021-2022 season some matches have been marked with poor officiating, with glaring refereeing blunders witnessed.

The caretaker committee should have conducted training or clinics to referees in the lead up to the league. It’s high time they set up budgets and bring in football tutors to train our referees to help avert chaos during matches. They must move with speed to protect integrity of the sport.

Otherwise, incompetence and hooliganism that remain rooted in our local football will hit worrying levels and we might not have our football the way we love it anytime soon.