Normalisation Committee head Kip Keino was a Kenyan athletic great
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Legendary athlete Kipchoge Keino is to head an interim committee formed by Fifa to resolve the impasse in Kenyan football.
The decision to appoint Keino and establish a 'Normalisation Committee' was reached at a meeting of Kenyan football officials and Fifa members in Zurich on Friday.
The meeting was called by Fifa president Sepp Blatter in the hope of resolving a dispute which has seen the country suspended from partaking in the 2006 World Cup and Cup of Nations qualifiers.
Keino is the current chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya and an International Olympic Committee member.
His appointment was given the full backing of those in Zurich, and the former athlete has been given until 1 August to fulfil certain conditions before Fifa lifts its World Cup suspension on the national team.
The Nationalisation Committee must carry out six duties, and confirm the undertaking of these by the first day of August if Fifa's Emergency Committee is to lift the suspension of the Kenya Football Federation (KFF) provisionally.
One condition is that the Kenyan government must re-open the KFF offices at the Nyayo National Stadium.
The government closed down the offices after disbanding the KFF executive committee in March.
Maina Kariuki, the chairman of the disbanded KFF executive, and vice-chairman Haroun Bomet will also form part of the interim committee.
Yet the dismissed secretary-general Hussein Swaleh has been left out.
On Tuesday, Kariuki, Bomet and Swaleh were charged in a Nairobi court with fraudulently obtaining funds totalling some US$700,000 from the KFF.
Keino won gold medals at the 1968 and 1972 Olympic Games and is one of Kenya's most celebrated athletes, commanding respect both at home and abroad.
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