Govt raises cash for football polls
by Fred Maingi 26 September 2011, 23:00
Kenya took a step closer to holding the eagerly anticipated national football polls after the Ministry of Youth & Sports managed to raise Shs.19 million of the Shs.22m budget requested by the Interim Independent Electoral commission (IIEC).
Speaking on Monday, Minister Dr Paul Otuoma said the money has been donated both in cash and kind by various bodies which included Fifa (Sh9.5m), Multichoice (Sh750,000), Star Newspaper (Sh1.8m worth of advertising space) and Kenya Airways (Sh1m).
Others are KenGen (Sh500,000), Bidco Oil Refineries (Sh995,000), Mumias Sugar (Sh1m), Youth Enterprise Fund (Sh400,000), National Bank of Kenya (Sh1m), Ministry of Youth and Sports (Sh2m), Airtel (98 data lines for seven days-Sh137,000) and Sports Stadia Management Board (National Tallying Center at Nyayo Stadium-Sh100,000).
Otuoma said the Interim Electoral Board should now liaise with the IIEC to announce the election date and give Kenyans a free and fair election.
“We have played our role and IEB has no excuse of not liaising with the IIEC to come up with new elections date,” said Otuoma.
He prevailed on the electorate to vote in leaders with integrity and clear vision to lead Kenya to the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations in Equatorial Guinea/Gabon and the 2014 Fifa World Cup in Brazil.
“The IIEC has in the past conducted elections for millions of people and the 5,000 or so voters in the elections are a small number,” said Otuoma. “We cannot be excelling in one sport but become a laughing stock in another.”
“The IEB and the IIEC must ensure that we have credible leaders are elected to head football in the country. We have seen people masquerading as football leaders in the past and we will never let our national interests be overtaken by those of individuals.”
“KFF and FKL must promise Kenyans that they are going to respect election results and be ready to disband to make way for a new football federation,” urged Otuoma.
He also remained optimistic that the election can be held before the end of this month.
“We do not see the reason why this exercise is delayed more than necessary,” the minister observed.