Kenyan football crisis turns violent, officials attacked

NAIROBI – Two top Kenyan Football Federation (KFF) officials were attacked by youths allegedly affiliated with rival board members, as the crisis over the sport in the east African nation turned violent, officials said yesterday.

KFF acting general secretary Titus Kasuve and second vice-chairman Erastus Okul were admitted to a Nairobi hospital late Monday with serious head and hand injuries after being attacked by youths armed with metal bars and machetes. The pair were accosted by the youths as they returned to the KFF offices at Nyayo National Stadium after seeing off the Kenyan team which departed Monday for a postponed World Cup qualifier in Tunisia.”I can confirm that the assault took place and it is being investigated,” national police spokesman Jaspher Ombati told AFP.The federation’s director of operations Patrick Naggi said that prior to the attack the youths had accompanied newly named KFF general secretary Moni Wekesa, whose appointment has been the subject of heated controversy, to the stadium.”They escorted him (Wekesa) in and they stayed outside in a vigil,” he told AFP, adding that witnesses had then reported the youths attacked the two men.Wekesa was named to the KFF post last week by international auditors KPMG under an arrangement with football’s world governing body Fifa aimed at ending persistent scandals and corruption allegations in the Kenyan federation.But he had twice been denied entry to the KFF offices at the stadium as some board members, including Kasuve and Okul, refused to accept his appointment.Police said nobody had yet been arrested in connection with the attack but sealed off the KFF offices pending an investigation into the incident which comes as Kenya struggles to rebuild its flagging football fortunes.Those efforts have been hampered by chronic infighting in the KFF which resulted last week in a one-day player strike over pay and this week in the Harambee Stars being forced to delay their scheduled departure for Tunisia by two days.Today’s match in Rades had originally been set for last year but was postponed when Fifa suspended Kenya from international competition over government interference in the running of KFF.Despite the end of the suspension, Kenya’s woes have continued as Fifa ordered the team last month to play a September 2 home match against Tunisia behind closed doors as punishment for unruly fan behaviour and administrative mismanagement in a June match against Morocco in which a schoolboy was killed.The 15-year-old died and 15 other people injured in a stampede outside Nyayo stadium that has been blamed on a KFF decision not to sell advance tickets for the match to curb counterfeiting.Fifa rejected the federation’s appeal of the penalty last week, saying it had been filed too late and without the necessary processing fee, a move that resulted in an angry round of finger-pointing between KFF officials.-Nampa-AFPThe pair were accosted by the youths as they returned to the KFF offices at Nyayo National Stadium after seeing off the Kenyan team which departed Monday for a postponed World Cup qualifier in Tunisia.”I can confirm that the assault took place and it is being investigated,” national police spokesman Jaspher Ombati told AFP.The federation’s director of operations Patrick Naggi said that prior to the attack the youths had accompanied newly named KFF general secretary Moni Wekesa, whose appointment has been the subject of heated controversy, to the stadium.”They escorted him (Wekesa) in and they stayed outside in a vigil,” he told AFP, adding that witnesses had then reported the youths attacked the two men.Wekesa was named to the KFF post last week by international auditors KPMG under an arrangement with football’s world governing body Fifa aimed at ending persistent scandals and corruption allegations in the Kenyan federation.But he had twice been denied entry to the KFF offices at the stadium as some board members, including Kasuve and Okul, refused to accept his appointment.Police said nobody had yet been arrested in connection with the attack but sealed off the KFF offices pending an investigation into the incident which comes as Kenya struggles to rebuild its flagging football fortunes.Those efforts have been hampered by chronic infighting in the KFF which resulted last week in a one-day player strike over pay and this week in the Harambee Stars being forced to delay their scheduled departure for Tunisia by two days.Today’s match in Rades had originally been set for last year but was postponed when Fifa suspended Kenya from international competition over government interference in the running of KFF.Despite the end of the suspension, Kenya’s woes have continued as Fifa ordered the team last month to play a September 2 home match against Tunisia behind closed doors as punishment for unruly fan behaviour and administrative mismanagement in a June match against Morocco in which a schoolboy was killed.The 15-year-old died and 15 other people injured in a stampede outside Nyayo stadium that has been blamed on a KFF decision not to sell advance tickets for the match to curb counterfeiting.Fifa rejected the federation’s appeal of the penalty last week, saying it had been filed too late and without the necessary processing fee, a move that resulted in an angry round of finger-pointing between KFF officials.-Nampa-AFP