Kenya risk FIFA ban after overhaul of its football federation

Kenya is risking a ban from football’s world governing body Fifa after its Sports Minister, Amina Mohamed, instructed a caretaker committee to run the country’s football federation.

Reports say Mohamed created a 27-person caretaker committee to run Football Kenya Federation (FKF).

Fifa disapproves of governmental interference in the running of a member association and has banned countries from all forms of football as a result in the past.

“In order to preserve the sport of football, I have decided to appoint a[n] FKF caretaker committee for a period of six months,” Mohamed said in a statement.

“The Ministry of Sports, Culture and Heritage shall facilitate the operations of the caretaker committee.”

One of the stated aims of the committee is to “hand over FKF to newly-elected officials after a successful election”.

Mohamed’s statement said that FKF has “over the past few years faced several governance issues that have been of great concern to the Ministry”.

“The FKF has failed to account for all the monies allocated to it by the government,” she wrote.

Mohamed requested the removal of the FKF’s current officials in order for investigations – to establish “the extent to which the misappropriation of funds in FKF may have occurred – to be carried out.”

Fifa officials are currently in Nairobi conducting their own audit into the FKF, which has been led by president Nick Mwendwa since 2016.