Looking for Soccer News?
FKF Elections: Nyamweya and other top aspirants won't participate in nomination exercise
The aspirants have revealed to Goal they will not take part in a rigged exercise and have vowed to seek justice in court
Four Football Kenya Federation (FKF) presidential aspirants have confirmed they will not present their nomination papers ahead of the national elections.
The exercise to present papers for the presidential seat will be conducted on Monday at FKF’s offices and will be led by the Electoral Board chairperson Kentice Tikolo.
However, Goal can exclusively reveal that four aspirants led by veteran administrator Sam Nyamweya, Nicholas Musonye, Twaha Mbarak, and Sammy Sholei will not participate in the exercise which they have already termed as flawed.
“I will not be handing in my papers tomorrow [Monday] simply because the exercise is not free and fair,” Nyamweya told Goal on Sunday.
“We will not accept to go into a contest in an already rigged process, the incumbent has already rigged himself back into the office and it will be a waste of time to participate in the exercise.
“I can assure you that we will not stop at that, we already have a case in court challenging the process and we will continue to press and get justice, only the court will be able to help us.”
Nyamweya added: “I want to assure you that we will not have an election again, the exercise has been stopped twice and I can assure you it will be stopped again because FKF have refused to follow the raid down laws.”
Mbarak has also confirmed he will not present his nomination papers because the Electoral Board have proved they cannot hold a credible exercise.and said they will wait for the court to give the way forward.
"I reiterate the purported voter register verification exercise was not just shambolic but a mockery of what is universally acceptable of such an exercise," Twaha said in a signed statement obtained by Goal.
“I wish to state in no uncertain terms that I will not participate in this flawed exercise disguised as an election and call on all my supporters to boycott the sham process until we have a process that can guarantee a credible electoral exercise for the good of our game,” Twaha continued.
“Our quest for electoral justice and fair end to the polls is on course and we shall pursue it to its logical, just end.
“I have the full confidence in the court which I believe, as they have done on two occasions in the past, it will mete out the same fate of this sham process so as to protect the law and the fundamental rights of every Kenyan as enshrined in the Constitution of Kenya 2010.”
On his part, Musonye said it will be a waste of time to hand in nomination papers when the exercise was not free and fair the same as Sholei, who said they will seek justice in the court of law.
Goal, however, understands other presidential aspirants - Boniface Osano and Omondi Aduda - will present their papers in readiness to face off with incumbent Nick Mwendwa, who will be seeking another four-year term in office.
The Electoral Board has already set October 17 as the date for the national elections which will be preceded by grassroots polls held across the 47 counties on September 19.
It will be the third time in a year that the FKF will be holding elections.
The previous two exercises were nullified by the Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) last December and in March this year, with SDT chairman John Ohaga ruling the rules of engagement were flouted on both occasions.
