PuraVida Sports

By Odindo Ayieko

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) is seeking to push Parliament to enact a law that will criminalize match fixing and manipulation of games.

In the wake of revelations of suspicious involvement in match manipulation by dropped Kenya national team, Harambee Stars, goalkeeper Patrick Matasi courtesy of a video that has over the past week gone viral, FKF Chief Executive Officer Harold Ndege says the only way out to come out with punitive laws that will bar footballers in the country from engaging in the vice.

“While we call on clubs to improve on players welfare through better salaries, we also realize that match manipulation is deeply entrenched in our game and we must come up with measure that will bar our players from engaging in it to protect the dignity of our game,” Ndege said in an interview during an event organized by the Association of Gaming Operators in Kenya (AGOK) in Nairobi.

Ndege further confessed that there are blatant cases that the federation is investigating and those found culpable will be banned from engaging in any football activities or interacting with the football ecosystem in the country.

“But beyond that, we want to work with the legislative arm of government to enact laws that will criminalize match fixing and have those involved face jail terms and huge fines,” stated Ndege.

No law to prosecute

Kenya has no law that can be used to charge and prosecute those alleged to be involved in match-fixing.

Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Ababu Namwamba had mentioned plans of amending the Sports Act to criminalize match-fixing and doping.

However, there has not been much progress on that front and FKF is still handling match fixing cases through its Disciplinary Committee and Integrity Department.

Ndege’s comments came at a time the Kenyan Premier League has been on focus with players from some clubs under the radar for engaging in math fixing.

A local club on its second season in the top flight league is under scrutiny from its president following a spate of suspect results.

The club president told this writer that he has credible information at least two of his players are involved in match manipulation. “Please do not name my club yet but I have crucial information linking some of my players with match fixing,” he said.

In Matasi’s case, sources claim the veteran keeper who joined Kakamega Homeboyz in the February transfer window was dropped by Kenya Police FC after suspicions he was involved in match manipulations.

At Police, he was their number one choice between the posts but in months towards the transfer window, he was dropped and eventually axed from the club.

“Ask yourself why we would just decide to drop a goalkeeper who also plays for the national team. We had received some information of his suspected underground connections,” said an official of Kenya Police FC who sought anonymity.

Fifa seeking details

Matasi has since been banned for 90 days from all football activities by FKF while the Confederation of African Football (Caf) is also actively monitoring developments. 

Further reports indicate world football governing body, Fifa, has contacted FKF seeking details on the investigation and offering assistance. 

Matasi’s case is one of growing cases that has over the past few years dogged Kenyan football.

While FKF has vowed to institute investigations, Kenyan football has been rocked by multiple match-fixing scandals over the years, with both local and international authorities taking action to maintain the integrity of the sport. 

Last year, FKF provisionally suspended three referees, a player, and a team official on match-fixing allegations. The five were Abdulkarim Amele (Team Manager of Kibra United), Jacqueline Barongo (referee), Kevin Otieno Olang’o (goalkeeper of FKF Premier League team FC Talanta), Meshack Omondi (referee), and Stephen Adeya (referee).

Two years ago, the FKF suspended 15 people among them two coaches and 13 players again on allegations of match fixing.

The 15 included Willis Ochieng Oganyo (Coach, Zetech University), Hamidu Kwizera Lucas (Former player, Zoo FC) Vincent Misikhu (Former player, Zoo FC), Sammy Sindani Sabiri (Player, Silibwet Leons FC), Michael Idovolo Madoya (Former player, Nairobi City Stars FC), Johnstone Ligare (Former player, Zoo FC), Geoffrey Gichana  (Player, Zoo FC), Dominic Ouma Okoth (Player, Kericho Rovers FC), Isaac Kipyegon (Player, Tusker FC), Stanslaus Akiya Munyasa  (Player, Silibwet Leons FC), William Odunga (Player, Silibwet Leons FC), Daniel Kiptoo  (Former player, Zoo FC), Brian Lumumba  (Player, Zoo FC), Du Monde Selenga Mangili (Head coach, Kericho FC) and Dennis Monda (Former player, Vihiga United).

The same year, former Kenya Premier League top scorer Ezekiel Odera was also suspended over match fixing allegation.

In May 2021, world football governing body Fifa, through the Fifa Disciplinary Committee, sanctioned Kenyan club Zoo FC after finding it guilty of having been involved in match manipulation in violation of the Fifa Disciplinary Code (2019 edition).

The decision to sanction Zoo FC was related to a series of matches in the Kenyan Premier League deemed to have been manipulated between 2018 and 2020 by individuals belonging to the club.

As a result, the Fifa Disciplinary Committee ordered the expulsion of Zoo FC from the 2020-21 Kenyan Premier League season and its subsequent demotion to FKF Division One for the season that followed.

First major case

Fifa later fined the club Sh6 million in July 2022 after the world football governing body established that the club had not complied with its earlier ruling by featuring in FKF NSL (second tier) instead of the FKF Division One (third tier), the league that it had been demoted to.

The first major case locally involved former Harambee Stars defender George Owino Audi in 2019. Owino was handed a 10-year ban by Fifa and fined $14,700 after he was found guilty of match-fixing

Fifa investigations revealed Owino had been paid millions of shillings to throw away the Kenya national team’s matches.

Fifa established a prima facie case against the defender for potentially committing breaches of the world football governing body’s Code of Ethics between June 2009 and 2011.

According to the Federation of International Football Associations (Fifa) report released in September 2018, Audi, through 177 email communications exchanged between him and high-profile international match-fixer Wilson Raj Perumal, conspired to manipulate and influence the result of international matches involving Kenya.

Perumal thus used Audi to identify several Harambee Stars players for the task in which an unspecified amount of money was exchanged between 2009 and 2011.

To sweeten the deal, Perumal – who has already been sentenced to prison in Finland and Hungary over these offences – offered Audi lucrative opportunities to play in Australia.

It is with these increasing cases of players being lured into match fixing that the federation is now pushing to make it criminal for any player, officials or referees involved in the vice.