Nairobi — Football Kenya Federation (FKF) says the country’s one-year suspension by world football governing body, Fifa, gave match fixers a fertile ground to perpetrate the vice in the country.
In a report presented to the National Assembly on Tuesday, the federation says the vice thrived due to the disorganization within the sport occasioned by the disbandment of Football Kenya Federation (FKF) by then Sports Cabinet Secretary Amina Mohamed.
“The period between December 2021 and October 2022 in which the federation was suspended and the football management was undertaken by the Caretaker Committee saw the rise in match fixing cases in our leagues as there was no regulator with the expertise to address the issues that arose. The match fixers took advantage of this gap to reach out to more players, clubs and match officials,” the report, signed by CEO Barry Otieno, said.
The report reveals the federation was making considerable progress in clamping the vice before its disbandment and eventual suspension from world football.
“In 2021, before the Fifa ban, the federation had suspended four match officials and one player implicated in match fixing. The federation has so far, since November 2022, suspended 17 players and three match officials as investigations continue on these and other cases,” the report adds.
Speaking while presenting the report before the Committee on Sports and Cultural Affairs, FKF president Nick Mwendwa urged lawmakers to initiate legislation criminalising match-fixing to make it easier to nab culprits.
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“We have had cases where individuals suspected of match fixing and who are not members of FKF have been arrested and presented in a court of law only for the cases to be dismissed for lack of legislation,” he said.
Mwendwa added: “We can only act against members but not against those who are not members of FKF. So, what we need chair, is a law that allows law enforcers to take action against someone who has been found to fix a match. This is what we are lacking here in Kenya.”
The federation’s request was embraced by the committee whose chair, Webuye West MP Dan Wanyama, promised to facilitate legislation to make match-fixing a crime.
“We have heard of you and will put in place legislation to criminalise match fixing so that the culprits can be arrested and charged in a court of law,” Wanyama said.
Last month, three people, including a Russian, were arrested on suspicion of fixing a match involving Nairobi City Stars.
