OPINION: Why all stakeholders must work to end the current Kenyan football conundrum

At this time, the Kenyan Premier League should already be talking about goals, performances by new signings and which teams are looking sharper for the title race. Instead, the biggest talking point is still whether the Premier League will actually get underway.

The 2026/27 campaign was scheduled to start on August 22. However, that did not happen. Another attempt followed, only for disagreements over promotion, relegation and the regulations governing the competition to end up back in court.

First forward, on August 28, the High Court in Murang’a allowed the Football Kenya Federation (FKF) to proceed under the 2019 regulations as the wider dispute continued. By September 16, there was finally some movement that looked like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel after FKF and the clubs agreed on September 19 as the new starting date after addressing several outstanding issues.

That also only lasted just about 48 hours.On September 18, the Murang’a High Court ordered that the league should not begin before a promotion-relegation playoff involving Kariobangi Sharks and Mombasa United. In a separate case, the High Court in Kiambu directed FKF to include Mombasa United as the 18th team in provisional league arrangements.

The September 19 kick-off was therefore put off again.The courts cannot reasonably be blamed for hearing cases brought before them. Clubs have a right to challenge decisions they consider unfair or unlawful, and judges have a duty to determine those disputes.

But that does not mean the wider football community should ignore what repeated litigation is doing to the game.

At some point, a dispute involving two clubs or an administrative decision stops being only about the parties involved. It begins affecting everyone else. Players miss competitive matches. Coaches lose preparation time. Clubs have to keep adjusting their plans. Supporters are left wondering when they will next see their teams play and as a matter of fact,that cost matters.

Football administrators and clubs need to find better ways of settling disagreements before they reach the point where the whole league is caught in the middle. Going to court is an important legal right, but it should not become the mechanism through which the national competition is repeatedly brought to a standstill.

What makes this timing makes this particularly uncomfortable for Kenya is that the country will be co-hosting AFCON 2027 with Uganda and Tanzania. Harambee Stars already have a guaranteed place in the tournament, but that does not mean the work of building a competitive squad can be taken for granted.

The Premier League should give the national team coach and the technical team a broad pool to watch over several months. It is one thing to see a player produce a good performance in a national-team camp. It is another to watch him handle different opponents, pressure and expectations week after week.That is how emerging players become genuine candidates for international football.

Kenya cannot therefore replace that process with occasional camps and friendly matches. The domestic league has to do its part.

The legal cases should be allowed to run their course. At the same time, those involved in the disputes should consider the damage being done to the wider competition and exhaust practical football mechanisms where those options exist.

FKF and the clubs now need to resolve the immediate impasse and establish a framework that leaves far less room for such kinds of fights.

Our football has already spent too much time arguing about who should be on the pitch and it is now time to let the players decide what happens in that pitch, not the courtroom.