Nick Mwendwa makes parliament submission in bid to tackle match fixing

© FKF

FOOTBALL Nick Mwendwa makes parliament submission in bid to tackle match fixing

Festus Chuma 18:00 - 18.04.2023

Players, staff and former players collude with match manipulators to fix games.

Football Kenya Federation (FKF) president Nick Mwendwa has called on the parliament to enact laws to tackle match-fixing.

In his submissions to the National Assembly's Committee for Sports and Culture, Mwendwa called on the parliamentarians to criminalize the vice, which has been on the rise the past two years.

"We need to have people arrested and punished so we can end this vice. Today if we take a match-fixer to the police station, there is no law to charge these individuals. We are asking you to help us close this gap" he said.

Mwendwa disclosed to the committee that match-fixing is mostly run by syndicates out of Asia who approach players and match officials to manipulate games.

Kenyan football has been rocked by match-fixing in the recent past, with the federation having suspended 25 individuals comprising seven match officials and eighteen players.

"The vice took root in our leagues between November 2021 and October 2022 when FKF was suspended. Match fixers took advantage of the fact that there was no regulator with the expertise to detect and track what was happening," he added.

Committee chairman Dan Wanyama promised that parliament would enact laws to curb match-fixing in football.

"We have heard you, we will help put in place legislation to criminalize match fixing so that those who engage in this vice can be charged and arrested in a court of law," Wanyama said.

The latest match-fixing case happened in March, where a Russian, Ugandan, and Kenyan national were arrested in Zimmerman Estate while trying to fix a top-flight match.

The suspects denied charges of conspiracy to commit a felony contrary to section 393 of the penal code and cheating contrary to section 315 of the penal code.

They were later released on a Ksh300,000 bond and sureties after appearing in court in Nairobi.