By Mark Baber
May 29 – As Sam Nyamweya, whose survival as head of the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is something of a miracle, prepares to vote in the FIFA Presidential election, he faces growing problems at home where letters to and from commercial rights agency MP & Silva are being published in the local press and a mounting campaign to put an end to his controversial reign appears to be gathering steam.
Amongst recent letters leaked to the media is a letter from media rights agency MP & Silva complaining about an earlier leak, which had revealed confidential details of the Sh2.3b annual five-year sponsorship between the agency and Nyamweya.
MP & Silva’s partnership with Nyamweya was crucial in enabling the head of the FKF to put into motion plans to destroy the Kenyan Premier League and have its top officials imprisoned in order, it is widely believed, to gain control of sponsor funds and to favour a team from his own local area which he wished to see promoted.
According to Kenyan press reports, “in a letter marked ‘CONFIDENTIAL’ addressed to Nyamweya and CEO, Michael Esakwa dated May 22, 2015, solicitor Olga Malmkvist writing on behalf of MP and Silva lambasts FKF for violating their ‘non-disclosure obligation’ after what they term ‘highly sensitive information’ found its way to the public domain.”
The letter from MP & Silva apparently includes a link to Capital Sport which revealed the original letter. The latest leaked letter continues: “To our great surprise, it came to our attention that, in spite of the Non-Disclosure Obligation, You made available a substantial amount of confidential details in relation to the Agreement, including the details of the letter from MPS to FKF dated 13 May 2015 with regard to re-negotiations of certain terms of the Agreement were disclosed by FKF in a press release on 14 May 2015 (“Unauthorised Press Release”).”
With MP & Silva mentioning the difficulty of foreseeing the “exact amount of damages MPS will be entitled to as a result of FKF’s material breach the Non Disclosure Obligations under the Agreement (Breach of Contract)” on top of the fact it is clear that communications between the two parties are effectively public, it seems trust between the two parties may be somewhat difficult to re-establish.
Nyamweya is also facing a rebellion in the ranks with National Executive Committee Member, Tom Alila calling for immediate resignations Nyamweya and his deputy Robert Asembo saying “the activities of the two gentlemen have compromised the image of Kenyan football in the region, continent and the world.”
Not least of the issues Alila highlights, is that it appears increasingly clear that the process of agreeing a deal between MP and Silva and the FKF may have included an element of gross dishonesty, in that “there was serious discrepancy regarding the signatures of premier leagues clubs which had been inserted without their authority.”
Alila is also questioning what happened to the $833,000 sent by MP & Silva, saying that the clubs have not received their May 2015 share.
Although the FKF reportedly denies signatures were forged, and in another leaked letter Nyamweya claims to be acting in the interests “of posterity,” the upshot of the chaos Kenyan football has been subjected to, according to Capital Sport, is that officials from 16 of the 19 FKF branches are expected to “converge in Nairobi to ‘rebel’ against Nyamweya who is expected to run for another term at the helm later this year, with Alila one of the candidates who has also thrown his hat to the ring for the top post.”
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