NAIROBI, Kenya, May 22 – Football Kenya Federation (FKF) boss Nick Mwendwa has revealed that his visits to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations are normal for a leader of his stature, saying that it is only given prominence by distractors and those he referred to as ‘cartels of the night’ as the Federation builds up towards elections.
Mwendwa was a visitor at the Kiambu Road-based directorate on Thursday and speaking to NTV Sasa on Friday afternoon, the FKF supremo revealed that this was the fourth time he was being questioned by detectives.
“When you are a leader of my status, someone will always make one or two accusations against you and it is your duty whenever called upon to go and answer to those accusations,” Mwendwa said.
He added; “We know this is a period of elections and anyone can do anything to discredit you. We have been there four times now from last year and we have always provided answers to the questions put forward against us.”
Mwendwa was questioned over Stars’ 2019 African Cup of Nations (AFCON) Sh244mn expenditure as well as other funds given to the Federation over which he says he gave concrete and credible answers as to how the money was used.
“Our opponents have been trying every way to find ways to remove me from office, but I want to tell them to go down to the delegates and talk to them. Those are the only ones who can remove us from office. Why didn’t they make noise the other times when we were at the DCI? They are only doing so now, because we are looking at elections,” he further opined.
He has denied claims that the Federation swindled money meant for players’ allowances, maintaining every players was paid every coin of money owed in terms of allowance and the only remainder was the Sh250,000 Tanzania winning bonus that he says is to be paid by government.
Meanwhile, on the Sh50mn qualification reward given by Deputy President William Ruto, Mwendwa said they had an agreement with the players to take a certain percentage to help them settle pending bills and also admitted they negotiated with the players to get some of it.
At the same time, on the thorny issue of the Outside Broadcast van acquired by the Federation, Mwendwa said they closed the case with the DCI in February.
“That is an issue that is in the past and soon we will have the OB van with us,” he stated.
Meanwhile, the Federation boss has disclosed that an agreement has been reached with FIFA over the case with former coach Adel Amrouche, saying that Kenya will not be expelled from the 2022 World Cup qualifiers.
On the new issues over immediate former coach Sebastien Migne, Mwendwa says theyhave already paid the French tactician a sum of up to Sh12mn while they continue to pay for rent and have given a car to his family which is still in Nairobi.
“We had an agreement signed between us when we decided to part ways after losing to Tanzania and we were to pay him some amount until March this year if he did not get a job. Good thing is that last October he got a job in Equatorial Guinea and we ensured we paid him his dues,”
“But, as it is known, there are challenges here and there with the Federation in terms of finances and we have about three or four million shillings pending with him. Up to last week we had paid him another Sh2mn,” he stated.
Mwendwa also touched on the issue surrounding the elections which have been cancelled two times by the Sports Tribunal with the latest one being because of eligibility issues on the post of president.
“When we came into office in 2016, these same rules were there. There is nothing we have changed. I did not go to court to challenge the rules but I instead went to the delegates and sought my votes. We are ready for the elections and they should also be,” he stated.
The Federation has faced a tumultuous time over the past few months with cases flying in and out of the tribunal over the elections.
They have been put on hold until a meeting between the Federation, government, tribunal and world football governing body FIFA.
