NAIROBI, Kenya Nov 15 – Football Kenya Federation (FKF) President Nick Mwendwa has been granted a cash bail of Sh4 million pending the prosecution’s request to have him detained for a further 14 days.
Mwendwa was arrested last week over mismanagement and arraigned on Monday. However, no charges were read out to them.
The prosecution applied to have him remain in custody for two more weeks to enable detectives finalise investigations.
The court said it will rule on the request Wednesday, and granted him the cash bail with an alternative bond of Sh7 million with similar sureties.
Mwendwa was also barred from accessing his office, or making public comments in the media over the case or the investigations.
“No access to all the workers of FKF, no address to the media at all, not to attend any football-related activities until the ruling of November 17, 2021, is delivered. I mean even today’s game, that is if you are going to be out,” said Milimani Magistrate Wandia Nyamu.
He was arrested last week after Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohammed disbanded the federation and formed a caretaker committee chaired by retired judge Aaron Ringera to take over for six months, in what has elicited mixed reactions.
Mwendwa and other officials are under investigation for mismanagement and other irregularities at the federation.
He was represented in court by former Law Society of Kenya presidents Eric Mutua and Tom Ojienda as well as Nelson Havi who is the current LSK boss.
Other lawyers on his panel are Senator Mutula Kilonzo Junior, Vincent Omwebu and Charles Njenga.
The prosecution said it wanted him detained for two more weeks to enable detectives complete an investigation.
“There is an entity appointed by the CS whether legal or not, which is in place to run the Federation. It is contradictory for the state to now allege that the respondent, who is not in office, cannot access the office and whose docket is under management of a third party, that if he is released will interfere with documents,” Eric Mutua, part of Mwendwa’s legal team argued.
He added; “The State cannot seek to punish Mwendwa with detention for having exercised his right to lawfully challenge the CS orders of disbanding the federation in a court of law.”
