Fifa intervenes on missing FKF broadcast van

A SuperSport OB van. PHOTO | FILE |

What you need to know:

  • That gathering was aimed at brainstorming how to best spend hundreds of millions of shillings allocated to FKF by its international affiliate Fifa as annual grants for 'football development'
  • Officials present elected to purchase an Outside Broadcasting Van, commonly referred to as an OB Van for a reported Sh135 million
  • The proposal was approved by Fifa and money disbursed, and the OB van was then 'acquired' and dispatched to the federation

As the Kenyan football fraternity woke up to news that Sh135 million had been lost, world governing body Fifa has waded into the issue and asked the Football Kenya Federation to furnish it with a full report on the matter as soon as possible.

A Fifa spokesperson Friday morning confirmed that Fifa is keenly following up on the matter of the “non-delivered OB vans”, thereby suggesting some plurality with regards to the missing item.

“FIFA has been notified of the non-delivery of the FKF broadcast vans. In this respect, we are awaiting to receive a full report from the FKF’s lawyers on this matter,” the statement read.

The deal to buy the van was brokered in 2016 when then FKF president Nick Mwendwa chaired a meeting comprising his then Chief Executive Robert Muthomi and the National Executive Committee (NEC), the federation's top decision making organ.

That gathering was aimed at brainstorming how to best spend hundreds of millions of shillings allocated to FKF by its international affiliate Fifa as annual grants for 'football development'.

Officials present elected to purchase an Outside Broadcasting Van, commonly referred to as an OB Van for a reported Sh135 million, which made economic sense at the time, since South African owned Pay-Tv channel Supersport had stopped airing Kenyan Premier League matches at about that time.

The proposal was approved by Fifa and money disbursed, and the OB van was then 'acquired' and dispatched to the federation but in a strange twist of events, supposedly 'repossessed' by Supersport which had sold it.

FKF have remained tight lipped on the issue, with acting Chief Executive Barry Otieno shifting goalposts saying:  “We are still in contact with Fifa and representatives of WTS. I cannot tell a definite date by which the van will be available."