Kenya's players sing their national anthem prior to their 2019 Africa
Cup of Nations match against Algeria at the 30 June Stadium in Cairo on
June 23, 2019. PHOTO | KHALED DESOUKI | AFP
Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa ferried dozens
of his staff, including his personal assistant, to watch the 2019 Africa
Cup of Nations in Egypt, gobbling up millions of shillings of
taxpayers’ money in travel and allowances, the Nation has established.
The
continental football tournament was staged in Egypt between June 21 and
July 19 and Mwendwa — by virtue of his position — was the man tasked
with preparing the men’s national football team Harambee Stars to
compete in this tourney.
The government paid FKF Sh244
million to prepare Stars following the nation’s excitement after the
team qualified to play in the tournament for the first time in 15 years.
But there is no way the federation employees would be left out of the travelling party, it has emerged.
Documents
in our possession show Mwendwa received the highest allowances — he
pocketed Sh50,000 daily, an amount that is more than what senior
government officials receive while on duty.
But he was not alone.
His deputy, Doris Petra, was paid Sh45,000 daily, while each of
the eight National Executive Committee (NEC) members who travelled was
rewarded with Sh40,000 for every night spent in Cairo.
FKF’s
then chief executive Robert Muthomi, who has since been sacked, was
paid Sh35,000 each day, with the lowest-paid federation member, named
“support staff” on the accountability checklist, pocketing Sh10,000
every day.
PLAYED IN EGYPT
Harambee Stars camped in Cairo for 13 days and featured three group stage matches against Algeria, Tanzania and Senegal.
This implies FKF might have spent upwards of Sh5 million to pay its staff, most of whom had no role to play in Egypt.
Other
officials who made the four-and-a-half-hour trip from Nairobi to Cairo
are NEC members Chris Amimo, Joseph Andere, Muriithi Nabea and Tony
Kweya.
Others are powerful Nairobi branch member
Michael Ouma, Mwendwa’s personal assistant (PA) Sylvia Mumbua, Muthomi’s
PA Juliet Nyambura, Frank Ogolla, the federation’s head of
competitions, and finance director Christine Ojode and Kimani Njoroge,
whose roles we could not immediately establish.
The
Nation is yet to verify whether Mwendwa consulted the government on this
pay check or if these rates are in tandem with those earned by
government officials as per the rates set by the Salaries and
Remuneration Commission.
“It is a policy of the
federation that it caters for accommodation for the branch officials who
can pay their air tickets to attend a major tournament. The NEC is the
highest decision-making organ of the federation so they had to attend
especially given Kenya was making a return to the tournament after a
15-year absence,” explained Barry Otieno, who has since replaced Muthomi
as CEO.
Besides these allowances, a statement of
accountability prepared by FKF erroneously states that this championship
was held in Cameroon.
The tournament was played in six cities across Egypt.
MIGNE'S AGENT
Another
inconsistency in FKF’s accountability is its claim that Sh18 million
was channelled towards preparing the U23 men’s national team for an
Olympic qualifier.
This amount had earlier been
allocated towards preparing Stars to compete in a friendly match against
Togo. But that match never took place.
“We were
supposed to play Togo as part of our preparations, but they cancelled at
the last minute and we couldn’t find an alternative. We ended up using
the money to prepare and cater for the junior national team’s travel and
accommodation expenses as they faced Sudan at home and away in the
Olympics qualifiers,” added Otieno.
It is not clear
whether the government gave Mwendwa the nod to divert funds meant for
preparing Harambee Stars for the Nations Cup towards preparing another
football team competing in a separate tournament.
The
two-leg U23 game versus Sudan was played on March 20 and 26, a month
before the government had approved the Sh244 million budget request that
had been tabled by FKF, which implies that the federation might have
placed it in this accountability note as an afterthought.
Meanwhile,
FKF paid OneGoal Pro agency Sh104 million to prepare the Harambee Stars
camp in France. OneGoalPro is owned by one Joe Kamga, who doubles up as
then Stars coach Sebastien Migne’s agent.
This raises
the question whether it was appropriate for FKF to use Migne’s agent to
help the team prepare for this tournament. Secondly, how did FKF, Migne
and Kamga specifically settle for France as the camp site? FKF also
says in its report that Stars played three friendly matches that gobbled
up a whopping Sh63 million.
This is not entirely
factual as the team only played against DR Congo and Madagascar. Why was
the third match not played but still accounted for?
“We
had budgeted for three friendly matches, but only played two. We
indicated that there were three friendly matches played so that our
documents would match with the ones we had tabled during the
budget-requesting process. Flying the team to play DRC in Spain and back
to France significantly raised the costs, so the money we had budgeted
for three friendlies was used on those two matches,” said Otieno.
APPERANCE FEE
As
part of their preparations, Stars entered a three-week residential
training camp at the French Rugby Federation grounds in Marcoussis on
May 31.
During that time, the team would play
Madagascar on June 7 at the Stade Robert Robin Paris, 14 kilometres away
from the Marcousis centre where captain Victor Wanyama and company were
based.
Notably, Madagascar was also camping in France at Montdidier, just a two-and-a-half hour drive to the match venue.
The
second friendly against DR Congo was played on June 15 in Madrid, where
the team spent two nights, having flown out on June 14 and returned to
its France base on June 16.
A separate entry under the
title Training Camp in France has a Sh42.5 million amount attached to
it. Assuming that this amount was inclusive of travel and accommodation
in Paris, could it be that the national team spent Sh63 million in the
three days they spent in Madrid? Whatever the case, the documents in our
possession indicate that for the 18 days the national team was in
residential training in France, they spent a whopping Sh106 million.
This
was spent on “travel and accommodation in France” (Sh51.3m), “Training
Camp in France” (Sh42.5m), technical bench allowances (Sh3m), and
purchase of kits (Sh8.7m).
Who organised the two
matches, was there external funding accorded to FKF for either or both
of them? Who booked and paid for the air tickets to Madrid and back to
France? Who paid for the match venues for the two friendlies? How much
was spent on the Madagascar match, since the Barea of Madagascar were
already camping in France and the match was played a stone’s throw away
from Stars’ Marcousis base? How much was spent to fly Harambee Stars to
Madrid and back?
Asked whether there was any appearance
fee payable to Madagascar and DR or any extra costs that would justify
the use of Sh63 million on two matches, Otieno introduced a new
character.
In one of the documents seen by the Nation, the FKF procurement committee, chaired by Otieno, awarded Kamga the job/tender on November 9, 2018, citing that he was “relatively fair and competitive”.
In one of the documents seen by the Nation, the FKF procurement committee, chaired by Otieno, awarded Kamga the job/tender on November 9, 2018, citing that he was “relatively fair and competitive”.
During the interview, Otieno admitted
that Kamga, a Cameroonian national, was selected at the recommendation
of coach Migne in October last year, and that he was selected through
single sourcing, which is a gross violation of government policy and
procedure.
Curiously, none of the documents tabled in
Parliament and at the Ministry of Sports bear any indication that the
federation received upwards of Sh77 million from the Confederation of
African Football and online betting firm Betin for use during Afcon.
Nation Sport has
reliably established that while FKF president Mwendwa was putting
pressure on the government to release the Sh244 million early this year,
he was already assured of Sh26 million from the tournament organisers
Caf, and a further Sh20 million as sponsorship from betting firm Betin.
“The
partnership with Betin will see the Stars funded to a tune of Sh20
million for this year’s Africa Cup of Nations, with Sh5 million set to
go into the purchase of the National Team’s kits and fans’ replica
jerseys,” reads a statement dated March 12, 2019 on the official FKF
website.
But on the documents in our possession, FKF indicates that it spent Sh8.7 million of taxpayers’ money on the “purchase of kits”.
Otieno
clarified this contradiction: “We did not spend any money given to us
by Betin on Afcon. We channelled the entire amount to administrative
costs.”
And regarding the Sh57.5 million that the
federation is entitled to for finishing third in their group, Otieno
said: “We are still waiting for that money. Caf is yet to send us the
money.”
The documents indicate that by the time the
national team was setting foot in Cairo on June 19 in readiness for
their opening match against Algeria, FKF had spent Sh211,867,928. Of the
entire budget, only Sh33,930,770 remained for use at the month-long
competition.
This amount is entered as the last item
in the final document under the subheading AFCON TOURNAMENT (CAMEROON),
though the tournament was played in Egypt.
Nation Sport
has established that FKF spent Sh5,210,400 on air tickets to ferry the
team from France to Cairo, and that Caf footed all local travel and
accommodation bills for all teams for the duration of their stay in
Cairo.
So, what expenses did the federation use the
remaining Sh28 million on for the 14 days? Was this money used to host
delegates and the federation’s secretariat in Egypt?
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