Kenya was banned from international football in October

Kenya has told Fifa to stop interfering in its domestic affairs and stop meddling with efforts to clean up the sport.

A day after Fifa's top panel chided Nairobi for its continued interference with football, government spokesman Alfred Mutua said no amount of criticism would force the government's hand.

Kenya, meanwhile, remains suspended from international football but Mutua says the east African government will clean up the sport, which has been plagued by infighting and corruption.

"The government will continue working to ensure that the Kenyan football is brought back into shape ... soccer in Kenya is rotten," Mutua said in Nairobi.

"If Fifa wants to ban Kenya for now, they can ban Kenya for now and they will un-ban it when we decide that we have done our job," he added.

Fifa on Wednesday chided Nairobi for its continued interference in the sport despite recent efforts by the Kenyan Football Federation to improve its administration.

Fifa said despite improvements in the relations with the Kenyan football community, "the problems were still far from being resolved due to the ministry of sport's systematic obstruction of progress and the national sport committee's interference with the federation and local clubs."

"Unless a clear commitment was made by the Kenyan government ... by 28 February 2007 to fully respect the Fifa statutes and comply with the established roadmap for the normalisation of football in the country, the suspension of the federation would continue for the foreseeable future, without a likelihood of change," Fifa said in a statement.

But Sports Minister Maina Kamanda has said the country is not in a hurry to be readmitted to the international scene until he revamps the sport, where local clubs' popularity has collapsed in favour of foreign teams.

Kenyan football has been plagued by woes in recent years and last October's Fifa suspension was its second in two years.