Milimani Senior Principal Magistrate Wandia Nyamu has asked the state to provide a charge for embattled Football Kenya Federation (FKF) boss Nick Mwendwa within the next seven days or consider his file closed.
Mwendwa returned to the corridors of justice on Wednesday afternoon where the Magistrate was to rule on the prosecution’s application to detain him for 14 days to allow for investigations.
However, the prosecution failed to substantiate any charges with Nyamu saying the matter would be heard next week Thursday.
The prosecution had on Monday sought orders to detain Mwendwa for 14 days to complete investigations, having arrested him on Friday evening. He spent the weekend in custody before being presented in court on Monday.
He was then granted a Sh4mn cash bail or Sh7mn bond with two sureties, granting him freedom until Wednesday when the ruling for the prosecution’s application would come up.
“Police arrested and detained Mwendwa irregularly which exhibited bad faith. They brought him to the court without a holding charge even after detaining him for a whole weekend,” Nyamu said in her ruling on Wednesday.
Nyamu declined to grant the request and said there was no compelling reason to issue the detaining orders, instead asking the prosecution to present a charge against the Federation boss within the next seven days or consider the case closed.
FKF President Nick Mwendwa and Secretary General Barry Otieno
The Magistrate also directed that all other conditions of the bail will remain the same. Mwendwa is not allowed to contact any member or employee of the Federation, access the offices, speak to the media or attend to any football related matters.
Mwendwa is accused of gross misappropriation of funds by a report by the Sports Registrar’s office. CS Amina Mohamed asked a special committee to be formed to inspect the Federation and upon receiving a report three days later went on to hastily install a caretaker committee led by Retired Chief Justice Aaron Ringera.
The decision drew the ire of the Federation bosses who insisted they were in office and Amina’s decision was an illegality and one which had no legal basis.
FIFA and CAF have already weighed in on the matter and Kenya has been threatened with a ban from international football if the CS does not rescind her decision to forcefully install a committee to run football.
“Going forward, without prejudice to the allegations that have been raised and any potential trial for offences that may have been committed, FIFA and CAF are asking you to consider the reinstatement of the FKF executive committee as prior thereto,”
FKF Boss Nick Mwendwa
“FIFA and CAF administrations are prepared to work closely with the FKF and your office representatives – as it has already been the case in the recent past – to normalise the situation,” a letter from FIFA Secretary General Fatma Samoura, sent to CS Amina reads.
However, the CS has completely chosen to ignore the requests from FIFA and is yet to use a public response on whether or not her decision will stand.
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