This archive report was first published on 30 October 2019.
On October 30, 2019, a dispute between the Government and Football Kenya Federation (FKF) over funding for the Harambee Starlets escalated, with FKF president Nick Mwendwa disbanding the team's camp just nine days before their Olympic qualifying match against Zambia.
According to Mwendwa, the federation had applied for Sh34m in 2018, which was yet to be disbursed, and subsequent applications for Sh38m in June 2019, Sh18m in August, and Sh18m in October for matches against Malawi, Ethiopia, Ghana, and Zambia respectively had also been ignored.
However, Sports Permanent Secretary Ambassador Kirimi Kaberia countered Mwendwa's claims, accusing FKF of blackmail and saying that funding should primarily be the federation's job, not the Government's.
“Whenever I hear about our national teams disbanding their camps I wonder how can certain federation allow that,” Kaberia told Citizen Digital.
He added that there were many sports facilities in the country that could have been used by the team, and that the federation should cater for their allowances, not the Government.
“In Kasarani, there is a nice new hotel where the ladies could have camped and the claims sorted later, so to me I wonder how things are done,” Kaberia said.
He also faulted Mwendwa for making such a move, saying that the federation's actions were not in line with the ministry's expectations.
“The only thing this federation thinks about is about camping far from Nairobi in big hotels and forgetting that as a ministry we also have other federations who are looking upon us,” Kaberia said.
