Exhibit
31.1
 
 Certification
of Chief Executive Officer Pursuant to
 Section
302 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002
 
 I, Levon
L Mathews, certify that:
 
 1.
              I
      have reviewed this quarterly report on Form 10-Q of First Federal
      Bankshares, Inc.;
 
 2.
              Based
      on my knowledge, this quarterly report does not contain any untrue
      statement of a material fact or omit to state a material fact necessary to
      make the statements made, in light of the circumstances under which such
      statements were made, not misleading with respect to the period covered by
      this quarterly report;
 
 3.
              Based
      on my knowledge, the financial statements, and other financial information
      included in this quarterly report, fairly present in all material respects
      the financial condition, results of operations and cash flows of the
      Registrant as of, and for, the periods presented in this quarterly
      report;
 
 4.
              The
      Registrant’s other certifying officer and I are responsible for
      establishing and maintaining disclosure controls and procedures (as
      defined in Exchange Act Rules 13a-15(e) and 15d-15(e)) and internal
      control over financial reporting (as defined in Exchange Act Rules
      13a-15(f) and 15d-15(f) for the Registrant and
  have:
 
 a)
designed such disclosure controls and procedures, or caused such disclosure
controls and procedures to be designed under our supervision, to ensure that
material information relating to the Registrant, including its consolidated
subsidiaries, is made known to us by others within those entities, particularly
during the period in which this quarterly report is being prepared;
 
 b)
designed such internal control over financial reporting, or caused such internal
control over financial reporting to be designed under our supervision, to
provide reasonable assurance regarding the reliability of financial reporting
and the preparation of financial statements for external purposes in accordance
with generally accepted accounting principles;
 
 c)
evaluated the effectiveness of the Registrant’s disclosure controls and
procedures and presented in this quarterly report our conclusions about the
effectiveness of the disclosure controls and procedures, as of the end of the
period covered by this quarterly report based on such evaluation;
and
 
 d)
disclosed in this quarterly report any change in the Registrant’s internal
control over financial reporting that occurred during the Registrant’s most
recent fiscal quarter that has materially affected, or is reasonably likely to
materially affect, the Registrant’s internal control over financial reporting;
and
 
 5.
              The Registrant’s other certifying
      officer and I have disclosed, based on our most recent evaluation of
      internal control over financial reporting, to the Registrant’s auditors
      and the audit committee of the Registrant’s board of
      directors:
 
 a) all
significant deficiencies and material weaknesses in the design or operation of
internal control over financial reporting which are reasonably likely to
adversely affect the Registrant’s ability to record, process, summarize and
report financial information; and
 
 b) any
fraud, whether or not material, that involves management or other employees who
have a significant role in the Registrant’s internal control over financial
reporting.
 
 
 Date:  February
      23, 2009
                  /s/LevonL.MathewsLevon
      L. Mathews, President and Chief Executive
  Officer
 
 1