Who’ll likely succeed Nick Mwendwa at FKF?
If Sports Registrar Rose Wasike has it her way, Nick Mwendwa will attend Saturday’s Football Kenya Federation’s (FKF) Annual General Meeting (AGM) for the very last time as president.
Ms Wasike has publicly told Mwendwa, in writing, that he’s ineligible to extend his eight-year tenure as FKF president on the basis he’s exhausted his two four-year term as per the Kenyan law.
Also affected by the communication by Ms Wasike is Doris Petra who served as Mwendwa’s Deputy for eight years, and three FKF National Executive Committee (NEC) members including Eastern Region’s Nabea Muriithi.
“Failure to uphold these legal standards jeopardises the integrity of football governance in Kenya and undermines the democratic principles upon which our sporting institutions should be founded,” explained Ms Wasike in her terse letter.
And while Petra has publicly protested Ms Wasike’s move and indicated she will ignore it, Mwendwa has largely remained mum.
So will Mwendwa contest, and if not, what are his options?
“The law is very clear. He (Mwendwa) cannot seek another term. He’s done his bit for eight years and it is time he honourably quit the scene,” argued Murang’a Seal FC owner Robert Macharia, a renowned lawyer.
Nairobi News understands Mwendwa could elect to try and contest for another four-year term until his chances “are mathematically impossible.”
This includes preparing to negotiate through several legal and political battles.
If this doesn’t work, Mwendwa is said to have settled on a few people as his possible successors.
They include FKF Chief Executive and Barry Otieno who’s served as his right-hand man since replacing Robert Muthomi in a bitter but bloodless coup in 2019.
Other contenders to take over from Mwendwa are Nyanza region NEC member Joseph Andere and his Coast counterpart Gabriel Mghendi.
Incidentally, Petra, despite serving as the defacto number two at FKF for close to the past decade, is said to be down the pecking order in the list of possible candidates to ‘succeed’ Mwendwa from within FKF.
But then another name has emerged, that of City Stars Chief Executive Patrick Korir, a respected journalist and football administrator who’s always had Mwendwa’s ear.
If or how Mwendwa settles on his successor remains to be seen but multiple sources who spoke to Nairobi News off the record indicate Otieno, even though an ally of Mwendwa, appears to be the hardest to sell from both within and without, on the premise that “he’s stepped on so many toes along the way.”
Either way, the forthcoming AGM, consisting of 94 delegates drawn from various clubs and branches countrywide, is set to discuss several things, including financial statements, and the electoral code, and approve the board that will supervise the elections.
Mwendwa and his list of successors aside, former FKF president Sam Nyamweya is among those who have publicly declared intent to reclaim the top seat ahead of the October polls.
Other contenders are former footballers Samuel ‘Kempes’ Owino and Macdonald Mariga, Gor Mahia secretary general Sam Ocholla and Bandari FC vice chairman Twaha Mbarak.
Although he has yet to publicly announce his candidature, Extreme Sports Chief Executive Hussein Mohammed is considered a front-runner in the race for the FKF presidency.