Stars bailed out of impasse

By Mutwiri Mutuota and Alex Ndegwa

The Vimal Shah led reconciliation committee has recommended Football Kenya Limited (FKL) to take charge of national team Harambee Stars for the 2010 World Cup/Nations Cup qualification campaign.

In a ministerial statement read in parliament yesterday by Sports Minister, Helen Sambili, the committee formed last week to re-unite FKL and their rivals Kenya Football Federation (KFF) gave the former a nod to prepare the team for the final phase of qualifiers.

“Kenya has to play in the World Cup and Nations Cup qualifiers and since FKL is the body recognised by Fifa, the reconciliation committee has recommended they go ahead and prepare the team,” Sambili told the August House.

Kenya will take on the Carthage Eagles of Tunisia on March 28 at home in a yet to be disclosed venue in their first Group 2 final qualifying tie. Nigeria and Mozambique are the other teams in the pool.

Sambili said talks to bring the warring factions together under a unified administration to run Kenya’s football spearheaded by Shah, the Bidco Oil Company CEO and Dr Kipchoge Keino, the chairman of the National Olympics Committee of Kenya were on.

“My ministry will continue to facilitate dialogue until a solution where Kenya will have a football administration that is wholly professional, transparent and guided by democratic ideals is found,” she said.

While calling for Parliament’s support in ensuring that the national team gained the facilities and other requirements to ensure they excel at the qualifiers, Sambili revealed that her ministry was in the process of organising a one-day seminar under the theme ‘Football We Want’ to address the crisis.

Point of order

“The conference will aim at hearing the views of all parties and segregating personalities from the institutions of running the game for the modernity and sustainable development,” she said.

Juja MP, George Thuo who rose on a point of order, however, urged the conference should not be held until the administration of football is unified under the world governing body.

“Emphasis must be placed on having a Fifa recognised administration running Kenya’s football. The ‘Football we want’ should be postponed until this is achieved,” Thuo said. Ikolomani MP Bonny Khalwale wondered why the Government was “fueling the confusion” yet there was no vacuum in football management since Fifa recognised FKL.

He asked the minister: “Why can’t you ask the Register of Societies to deregister KFF?” Mutito MP Kiema Kilonzo said there was emerging a worrying trend whereby “losers hang on in the belief they will share the spoils with the winners.”

“Why hasn’t the ministry cracked the whip?” He posed. “Why are football offices still being managed by KFF?”

In response, Sambili said the government had pursued dialogue because interference in football affairs would attract stiff penalties from Fifa.

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