Ten rounds into the new 2022-23 Football Kenya Federation Premier League season and match officials, including referees, their assistants and match commissioners have not been paid, begging the question, how do they manage to honor games and do so with integrity?“FKF told us point blank as we began the season that they did not have money to pay us, but would do so when FIFA money arrives sometime in March,” one referee told Mozzart Sport anonymously as they are not allowed to talk to the media due to the sensitive nature of their work.The FKF through Ken Okaka, the Media and Communications Officer, confirmed the same.Tusker defender Isaac Kipyegon and fourteen others suspended for alleged involvement in match fixing“They have not been paid, and no one has been. They will be paid once FIFA starts sending funds,” Okaka said.So bad is the situation that some match officials, who have gone almost a year without receiving a penny for their sweat, have been turned into ‘beggars’.“Referees are exploited in this country, ours is a thankless job, we should just be added to the list of sponsors. Some of us are now angling for anything from clubs, including a mere lunch.Before the FKF Caretaker Committee was installed, we had gone ten rounds without pay, but even with the government money in place, at the end of the Caretaker’s mandate, they closed shop without paying us up to another ten rounds of work,” the ref added.Hard work procuring handsome returns for KCB FC rookieInstalled by the government to clean the much talked about mess in Kenyan football, the FKF Caretaker Committee which later morphed into a Transition Committee, left after a year of grand failure, according to some observers, leaving behind even a bigger mess including a FIFA suspension, and are still being reminded to account for every penny extended to them during their epoch.“It is passion for some of us,” says a former FIFA referee, now match commissioner. “Some of us are still owed money from the days of Sam Nyamwaya (former FKF president), but we are going strong, you only make sure you have your other hustles to keep you going.”He says FIFA refs are the most misused by the federation.“As a FIFA referee, the federation expects that you must honor games, whether you are paid or not, otherwise it is viewed as sabotage, so you cannot complain.Yet, for them, they can at least recover some of the costs when they are assigned international games which pay handsomely. “You just have to persevere, but to be honest the situation is dire for refs who have not gotten the FIFA badge.”Shockingly, he admits the lack of money in the game, has exposed it to match fixers, a vice he stresses is now deeply rooted, and involves even some members of the FKF.“We do not have a league, hizi ni sarakasi tu (this is just a circus). The match fixers are here and they are known. They have captured the whole system, including some members of the FKF referee committee, who allocate duties. Some of the referees were already suspended, but were reinstated, it’s public knowledge.”Okaka did not comment on the allegations.##NAJAVA_MECA_6954606##In July 2021, the FKF suspended five top referees accusing them of involvement in match- fixing. They included FIFA official Raymond Onyango, Samuel Mwaura, Isaac Memusi, Collins Opiyo, and Japheth Juma.“Football Kenya Federation, as a precautionary measure and in the interest of safeguarding the integrity of its leagues and competitions, has provisionally suspended five FKF-PL match officials suspected to be involved in match manipulations,” FKF CEO Barry Otieno said in a statement then.Some of the officials are back officiating with nothing known about what investigations revealed against them.Recently, the FKF suspended 15 individuals including players and coaches suspected of match fixing, pending investigations. Whether the federation will also self-examine for any rogue elements within remains to be seen.
