FKF woes: Are you my friend, my neighbour or my enemy?

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When the final whistle was blown, the score read 65-1.

This wasn’t your usual football match that would last 90 minutes or 120 at most, no. It was neither a basketball contest that would be done in 40 minutes of either stopping or running time.

It was a different kind of a match. A tie that was held off the playing field. A contest that had a referee not dressed in his or her usual uniform, but in a suit.

The adopted stadium was The Steers Hotel in Meru, not the traditional Kinoru. The referee of the day was Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Kimbo branch chairman Dansson Jaguna.

It was a contest between Football Kenya Federation president Hussein Mohammed and his deputy, McDonald Mariga. But unlike with any contest, only one team was at the stadium for this match; Hussein Mohammed.

Cheered on by his fans (read delegates), the match went on. Of the 92 FKF delegates, 66 were in attendance.

For Mariga, who to date is the sole East African to have won the coveted Champions League title, the one which has eluded England Premier League champions Arsenal for years, was missing in action when this particular match started. Perhaps the only one which he had missed in a long time.

Barely 30 minutes into the game, Jaguna blew the final whistle. Final result; Hussein 65 Mariga 1.

The score meant that vice president Mariga and his six musketeers had been expelled from the FKF National Executive Council. The others were Dan Shikanda (Nairobi), Collins Kalee (Nyanza), Bernard Lagat (Rift Valley), Violet Kerubo (women’s representative), Robert Macharia (Central) and Gabriel Mghendi (Coast).

“How can you expel someone who has not been given a chance to defend himself. The same way Fifa told us to give him a fair hearing, is what we are also asking for. We are just paying the price for fighting corruption. We are going to seek advice from our lawyers before taking the next step,” said Mariga.

To the delegates, the seven were guilty of among other charges, seeking to dethrone President Hussein Mohammed and repeated failure to attend NEC meetings.

It’s as if they skipped over a car, and bounce into the trailer. A point of no return.

For a couple that celebrated their union on December 7, 2024, this divorce has been nothing but acrimonious, discordant and jarring. Few, if any, saw this coming. They seemed the perfect couple. Meant for each other. For better for worse type. Rare to find.

Just like any other union, there were whispers. Hush talks had it that there were some storms in paradise.

You see, on April 24 Mariga and his team made a daring move of unseating their boss. Their reason? They linked Hussein to the procurement of an insurance cover of about Sh42 million for the 2024 African Nations Championship (CHAN), which Kenya co-hosted with Uganda and Tanzania.

The centre couldn’t hold any further and things fell apart.

Yours truly wishes that ‘Mac D’ had taken some time to scan, even if not reading, whole of Robert Greene’s 48 Laws of Power book.

Rule number one says never outshine the master... But for AFC Leopards chairman Boniface Ambani, he chose to follow Martin Luther King Jr’s wise counsel thus: “In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.”

He chose to speak and loudly so. To him, the expulsion of the seven musketeers was evitable somewhat.

“I was the only one who voted no and with a reason. I believe we still have a chance to work as a team. I know that in the end, football will win,” he said.

Even the good book, in Isaiah 1:18 couldn’t agree more with Ambani, the former Harambee Stars striker.

“Come now, and let us reason together...though your sins be as scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they be red like crimson, they shall be as wool...”

So, what next for a limping FKF family?

“They need to have a special elective assembly within 60 days to fill the seven positions,” said lawyer Raphael Omalla.

FKF leaderships woes:

April 24, 2026: The Mariga-led faction attempts a boardroom coup

April 27–28, 2026: The Sports Disputes Tribunal (SDT) and the High Court in Kiambu issued emergency conservatory orders; froze Mariga’s coup and reinstated president Hussein Mohamed

May 1–25, 2026: Fifa rejects the Mariga faction’s April coup on May 25

August – September 2026: Debate erupts over whether to use the 2019 or the 2025 promotion and relegation rules.

September 2026: The High Court in Murang’a cleared the SportPesa League to kick off under old 2019 rules

October 22, 2026: Pro-Hussein delegates compile a formal list of gross constitutional charges against the seven “rebel” NEC members

November 2, 2026: Mariga tries to convene a separate, parallel NEC meeting scheduled for November 4. Fifa gives it a red card

November 7, 2026: FKF delegates hold a Special General Meeting (SGM) and expel Mariga and the six NEC members