By Omulo Okoth

Football Kenya officials are becoming too belligerent. They are also becoming increasingly bellicose and paranoid.

Yet, with the Prime Minister safely on their side, they can sit pretty, firmly insulated from any threat, real and imagined, from the Kenya Football Federation (KFF), as yet.

They see enemies from everywhere. If the enemy is not in the Press, it is Denis Oliech, Mathare United and lately, a certain chief manipulator, whose name has remained anonymous, but for all intents and purposes, is everybody’s guess.

Many offensive letters have been flying around, some purporting to be defending the PM from imaginary attacks, others accusing the Press of all sorts of improprieties, including and not limited to misguiding Oliech, or Oliech going overboard in challenging coach Antoine Hey’s authority.

I think FKL is the one going overboard in its pursuit of feathering its nest.

POWER AT ITS DISPOSAL

With the absolute political power at its disposal, FKL can sort out many problems that bedevil our beautiful game. Their eyes are just opening now. They were blinded by an unholy alliance which enabled them to enjoy the trappings of Fifa power, thanks to the influence of the ‘Chief Manipulator’.

Like the disciples riding with Jesus on the boat discussing the yeast of the Pharisees and Herod, then Jesus asks: "Do you still not see or understand? Do you have eyes but fail to see, and ears but fail to hear?

The last letter I received from FKL read thus: "There is one man connected to Mathare United who wants to control all aspects of football. The man must organise the KPL, he must be involved in the Nationwide League, Football Kenya Cup, Harambee Stars and any other aspect of football for all these to be credible…" Hah!

Is it now that your eyes are opening to this age-old reality of Kenya football? Who does not know that this man is the power behind the throne? He has the wherewithal to turn the tables against FKL even now. Watch this space.

Oliech is a professional player who deserves respect among his peers at his French club. Did his appeal for the reinstatement of the four players constitute challenging the coach’s authority? If Harambee Stars have code of conduct within which every player is expected to operate, has he flouted it?

Like Oliech and many Kenyans, I was embarrassed by this outlandish juju claim. Few will buy it anyway. I wonder what was in the mind of my old friend Patrick Naggi when he made those wild claims in Kakamega.

A team manager per excellence in his days, Naggi was fondly known as TM. As team manager of Breweries FC (the precursor of Tusker), he nurtured many a talented player, especially from Nairobi’s talent-laden Eastlands.

When he became a coach, some of us thought he would become a square peg in a round hole. But his latest outburst was completely out of character. He has come out of it with an egg on the face. Back to FKL, with absolute powers that has shunted the Sports Minister to the periphery of football administration, they can improve many a stadia now, fix perimeter walls, erect flood lights in Kisumu, Mombasa, Nakuru, Eldoret and Kakamega.

But finding fault and excuses certainly won’t wash.