By Steffany Ndei
There are a few interesting facts about Kenya that are recognized globally. For instance, if you are a keen follower of American politics, you might know of the false claims that former US president Obama was born in Kenya. While I as a Kenyan would love for that to be true, we still take pride in being somewhat related to influential people such as Obama and Sunak whose fathers were born in Kenya.
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| Steffany making her presentation |
Apart from this connection to people who run big democracies, Kenya is also home to some of the best runners in long distance races. With the number of world records currently held by Kenyans such as Faith Kipyegon’s 1500m and Kelvin Kiptum’s record in the marathon , it’s understandable when everyone assumes that Kenyans are naturally good at running or that athletics is our national sport.
However in Kenya, much as there is no declaration for what the national sport is, football, and not athletics, is at the core of the national fabric. Football is the most watched sport in the country, such that in 2013, the local television networks broadcasting football premier leagues such as the EPL experienced an 82% spike in viewership. Football is also the most played sport in the country and its significance extends beyond recreation; it serves as a campaign tool for politicians and plays a crucial role in the government's agenda, as evidenced by past unsuccessful bids to host international tournaments like African Nation Championships in 2018 and AFCON in 1996. It’s only recently that Kenya alongside Uganda and Tanzania won the bid to host AFCON 2027.
Despite this interest in football from the Kenyan state and the people it governs, the standards of Kenyan football are not on par with global or even continental levels.The leagues, the football clubs and the national teams are financially deprived and performances of the national teams are dismal. And at the core of all these problems in Kenyan football, is poor governance by the people running the federation.
For about nine months in 2022, FIFA had imposed a ban on the Football Kenya Federation, citing "third-party interference." The instigator or the third party in this case was the government of Kenya which had arrested the federation's president, Nick Mwendwa, on charges of embezzling public funds.The funds, earmarked for Kenya's preparation for the Africa Cup of Nations in 2019, amounted to 340 million ksh, equivalent to 1.9m EUROS.
This is not an isolated event. Just a year after Nick Mwendwa took office in 2016, the same administration could not account for 1.3 million USD provided by FIFA for the acquisition of a broadcasting van - an asset that was never procured. What’s more, the tenure of this administration has been marred by unstable partnerships, particularly in the area of broadcasting and league sponsorships. One broadcasting partner decided to terminate their deal, saying "the persistent acrimony between the governing body and its key stakeholders among them media and top tier clubs has negatively affected the league’s brand affinity.” The said acrimony towards the media was a ban on specific sports journalists who were barred from accessing stadiums during premier league matches and barred from press conferences involving the federation.
As recently as October last year, the coach for the men’s national team publicly lamented the non-payment of his salary while accusing the state for the arrears. This accusation was an attempt to deflect responsibility away from the Football Kenya Federation, which, in reality, holds the mandate for hiring and paying the coaching staff. And if the national team coach is not being paid, imagine what the football players are going through. A number of players from the women’s national team were dropped from the squad after disclosing that they too, were owed by the federation.
It's crucial to recognize that these challenges of government intervention, and mismanagement within Kenyan football are not novel, nor are they exclusive to the current federation. In 2011 FIFA instituted a normalization committee in response to a deadlock caused by two factions, each claiming to be the rightful governing body of Kenyan football.
However this non-interference policy and installation of a normalization committee where FIFA keeps the state of Kenya at bay from holding the federation accountable is hardly done to promote good governance principles because as we speak, the current federation is back in power because FIFA demanded so. Instead, this non-interference policy has not only enabled and normalized corruption, it’s also been insolent to the state of Kenya and the institution with the jurisdiction to handle disputes and wrangles such as anti-doping and governance wrangles in sports federations. This is the Sports Disputes Tribunal. In 2016, despite requests from the SDT to FIFA to establish a normalization committee due to electoral disputes and the corruption cases within the football federation, FIFA in a letter disregarded them by saying “we note that the SDT is not a national arbitration tribunal in the sense of FIFA circular 1010 dated 20 December 2005.” For context, Kenya passed a new constitution in 2010 and the SDT came into being in 2013.
As far as the SDT is concerned in Kenya, the current office holders in the football kenya federation are not legitimately in office because their election process does not comply with the Sports Act in Kenya.
There is a Swahili proverb that says "Ndovu wawili wakipigana, nyasi huumia" which translates to – "when two elephants fight, it is the grass that suffers." In this case, the 'grass' represents the players who almost always bear the brunt of the impasse between FIFA, its member association and the government. In 2022, during the ban the women’s national team missed out on the AFCON qualification and Women's World Cup qualifiers due to these disputes. Due to the acrimony between the sponsors and broadcasting partners, the men’s leagues are financially deprived, which has fattened the ground for match manipulation involving both foreign and local interests.
In Europe, we have seen rulings from the ECJ that have overridden this autonomy of sport that enables FIFA and its member associations to operate as they wish. We have seen it in the Bosman ruling and recently in the case of the super league. As much as the rulings have been on cases pertaining economic interests, the solution I propose is inspired by these events. Professor Miguel Maduro who was the chairman of the governance committee in FIFA believes that the EU is the rightful body to regulate the governance issues in FIFA and UEFA.
Inspired by this school of thought, I believe a similar path can be taken within Africa, especially through the African Union. The African Union has a sports council which means they have sports within their interests. Among the issues they are keen on is safeguarding and I believe you cannot safeguard athletes without working with the confederations in the continent. The states in Africa that disproportionately suffer the consequence of FIFA bans, can leverage their power, set up a framework within the African Union that ensures the confederations work within the rule of law. Indeed, there are shortcomings to this proposal such as the already murky political climate in some African countries. But it can and should start with the countries that have the appropriate governance framework. This proposal is also a summoning to the people from Africa and the ones working in the continent under any capacity, to lobby through the existing institutions for better governance, for only then do we contribute to the sustainable goal of just and peaceful institutions. It also lays the groundwork for potential transnational cooperation on the continental level. If the AU-EU partnership works towards goals such as climate change and global security, it can work towards sports governance as well.
Editorial Note: The insights and observations shared in this article are from the presentation "How FIFA's Non-Interference Policy Enables Autocratic Rule: A Case Study of the Kenyan Football Federation," delivered by Steffany Ndei at the Play The Game Conference in Trondheim,Norway.
