Confederation of African Football (Caf) has suspended Football Kenya Federation (FKF) General Secretary Barry Otieno and Harambee Stars team manager Ronny Oyando for six months.
The CAF’s Disciplinary Committee found the two guilty of fielding four players who’d tested positive for Covid-19 in their match against Comoros.
Today, the duo were slapped with a six-month ban from all of Caf activities.
Otieno was separately found guilty of tearing a PCR medical report indicating the affected players medical statuses.
Caf in a ruling: “On the day of the match the General Secretary of the Comoros Football Federation came in early to take their PCR tests, and he was met with refusal from the Kenyan national team’s management, they delayed the process for three hours until they finally gave in.”
“The test results arrived just a few minutes before Kick-off, during warm-up, due to the said delay. The Commissioner did not get the chance to check the results himself as Mr. Barry Otieno, the General Secretary of the Kenyan Football Federation and Mr. Ronny Oyando, the Kenyan Team Manager disputed the results as soon as they have become aware of them and snatched them from his hands and tore them.”
“According to the PCR tests copies that were acquired after the match, four players have all tested positive before the match yet took part in the game and risked the contamination of the opposing team as well as their fellow teammates and all officials that were involved in match 94 of the Total African Cup of Nations Qualifiers.”
Mwendwa has separately maintained during interviews in the past that all Harambee Stars players were negative as per tests conducted prior to the team’s departure, further suggesting Comoros officials exhibiting unsporting behaviour by targeting some of Kenya’s dependable players.
Following this ban, Otieno and Oyando will be barred from participating or attending the two matches involving Harambee Stars against Egypt and Togo at home and away in the remaining 2021 Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers later this year. The duo could will also be required to stay away from Gor Mahia’s engagements in the Caf Confederation Cup
Kenya was separately fined $20,000 (about Sh2.3 million over this incident the FKF was guilty of facilitating Deputy President William Ruto’s access to the pitch side in contravention of the Covid-19 regulations.