High Court denies jailed ex-Nock official Stephen Soi bail
Former National Olympics Committee of Kenya official Stephen Arap Soi and Team Kenya Chief de Mission at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.
National Olympics Committee of Kenya (Nock) ex-official Stephen Arap Soi will remain in prison pending the determination of his appeal against his conviction in the Rio 2016 Olympics scandal.
The High Court has thrown out his request for bail after finding there were no exceptional grounds to grant him temporary release and suspend the prison term.
Mr Soi, 65, was convicted of six offences and sentenced by an anti-corruption court in September. He was ordered to pay a fine of Sh105.6 million or, in default, serve 17 years in prison. He was unable to raise the fine and has been in prison since.
Three offences were on abuse of office and three on wilful failure to comply with applicable procedures and guidelines relating to management of public funds.
Mr Soi appealed at the High Court, seeking to have both the conviction and sentence set aside.
Pending the determination of the appeal, he sought to be released on bail, explaining that he is old and suffers from several chronic diseases that require constant attention from his doctor.
Bond application
But Justice Esther Maina dismissed the request, saying Mr Soi had not demonstrated sufficient and exceptional grounds for bond.
“There are no sufficient grounds to grant the bond application. No exceptional grounds … have been raised or demonstrated,” Justice Maina.
“Although the applicant’s medical reports have been shown indicating he has several ailments, the prison facility has the capacity to address (them).”
She directed that the hearing of the appeal be expedited due to Mr Soi’s health condition.
Among the six people arraigned for the Sh55 million scam, he is the only one in prison after his co-convict, former Sports Cabinet secretary Hassan Wario paid a Sh3.6 million fine.
Four other co-accused – Richard Ekai, the then principal secretary, Haron Komen, Francis Kinyili Paul and Patrick Nkabu Kimani – were acquitted by the trial magistrate Elizabeth Juma.
Retired police boss
In his appeal, the retired police boss, who was the head of the Kenyan delegation to the Rio Olympics in 2016, has questioned the legality of his conviction.
He says his conviction and sentence were based on the trial court’s misinterpretation of the law and evidence.
He also questions why he was punished for authorising payments in the Ministry of Sports when he was not an employee of the ministry.
“He was not the accounting officer and as such he did not have the authority to incur expenditure. Thus, he could not be blamed for the alleged loss of money,” his lawyer argued.
The judge heard that the accounting officer was Mr Richard Ekai, who was acquitted by the trial court.
Besides authorising the cancellation of air tickets, resulting in a loss of Sh9.7 million in public funds, he was also convicted of overpaying allowances to officials, athletes and journalists who travelled to Rio.
He argues that he could not have committed the financial crimes because there was overwhelming evidence on record that he was nowhere near the scene of the crimes.
He also contends that he was unlawfully condemned on a finding that he had conferred a benefit to his superiors at Nock – Dr Kipchoge Keino and Francis Kinyili Paul – who served as president and secretary-general, respectively.