Nairobi — Football Kenya Federation (FKF) presidential hopeful Sammy Owino "Kempes" says Saturday's Annual General Meeting of the federation holds significant implications for the future landscape of football in the country and if sobriety does not prevail, the sport will suffer immensely.

Owino said the delegates converging for the AGM on Saturday have a chance to rebuild or totally destroy Kenyan soccer and urged them to put the interests of thousands of young footballers ahead of any personal gain or interest.

"We are aware of the meetings being held the day before the AGM to sway the actions of the delegates in favor of FKF, our hope is that enough of them will have the courage to resist the intimidation and bribery and do the right thing," Owino said. He is however not very optimistic.

The former Kenya international said he is disturbed by the recent happenings where their efforts to block some stakeholders from participating in the AGM and the intimidation meted on perceived candidates by individuals at the federation.

"We need to ask pertinent questions to the outgoing federation leadership especially on the preparation for the upcoming elections.

There are issues on the registry which the federation has kept secret and are manipulating it from the grassroots because this forms the basis on whether the elections will be free, fair and transparent," said Owino.

Owino said that by manipulating the list of delegates that will see the whole electoral process skewed towards particular candidates rendering the whole process a sham.

"Elections are not a singular event, what happens at the AGM sets the pace for manipulation of the entire electoral process and ultimately, we will end up with another set of bad leaders.

He said that FKF leadership is trying to intimidate and harass any perceived opposition and create confusion.

"It is my hope that the delegates will do the right thing for the better of the game. The action of the delegates will signal the start of the revival of our football or the continuation of the decay," observed Owino who has been on another round of campaign at the Coast and in Western Kenya.