Ugandan arrested for attempting to bribe KPL players

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Zoo FC have been relegated to the third tier league by world football governing body Fifa.

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What you need to know:

  • The match fixing cloud has been hovering around Kenyan football and is said to be spreading its tentacles in the football clubs because of the betting craze and poor and structured pay for footballers in the country.
  • Former Mathare United defender George Owino was banned by FIFA from football related matters for 10 years after he was found guilty of an attempt to try and manipulate international matches.

A Ugandan national will Monday appear before a Kisumu court, where he will face immigration and corruption related charges for attempting to fix a Premier league match. 

The foreigner was on Saturday arrested at a Kisumu hotel trying to bribe four Western Stima FC players and the team manager in order to lose Sunday's Premier league fixture against KCB.

At the time of his arrest, Mr Fred Ronald Niwagira Mwine was found with over Sh70,000 in a Kisumu hotel while attempting to fix the local Football Kenya Federation (FKF) Premier League match at Nakuru Afraha Stadium.

According to a police report, Mr Laban Jobita, chairman of Western Stima Football club, was approached by a man at Museum View Hotel for a meeting.

Mr Jobita said they decided to set the trap for the Ugandan national after he heard of reports of what he had planned to do.

“When we got the tip, I gave a go ahead to the four players and the team manager to go to Museum View Hotel, record the conversation and tip me once the Ugandan national had placed the cash on the table,” said Mr Jobita.

He told Nation Sport that he started following up the matter after he heard reports that his players had been approached prior to the AFC fixture on December 18 in Nairobi, where they won 2-0.

Suspicious character

Mr Jobita said his players admitted being approached by a suspicious character then asking them to lose 3-0 to AFC Leopards.

“They however took the money offered but played their hearts out, beating AFC 2-0. I then asked the players and the team manager to alert me when they are approached again so that we could catch the fixer red handed,” said Mr Jobita.

When he was alerted of another attempt having heard that Mr Niwagira was looking for his players on Friday, he decided to have the team manager Mr Moses Nyalik accompany them on Saturday at the venue of the planned meeting.

Throughout this time, Mr Nyalik had made a call to Mr Jobita who had received and was listening in on the whole conversation until that time when the cash was offered.

According to Mr Jobita, Mr Niwagira was offering Sh500,000 to be shared among the four players and the team manager.

The suspect gave out Sh10,000 purportedly being lunch pending payment of Sh500, 000 upon successfully losing the game.

“Immediately, our officers arrested the said person and established that he is a Ugandan national by the name Niwagira Ronald Mwine Fred of Ugandan passport no K5484752, whose immigration status has expired,” read the police report.

The police documented the said cash and escorted the suspect to the station, where upon thorough search he was found to be in possession of more Sh61,600 in cash.

“They were to lose 4-0, two goals on each half when they play KCB on Sunday,” said Mr Jobita.

The suspect was grilled by DCI officers at Kisumu Central Police Station for more than five hours and is set to be charged today.

Mr Ken Okaka, the communications officer at FKF, confirmed having received the information from Mr Jobita and said they had forwarded the same to the world football governing body FIFA.

The match fixing cloud has been hovering around Kenyan football and is said to be spreading its tentacles in the football clubs because of the betting craze and poor and structured pay for footballers in the country.

Former Mathare United defender George Owino was banned by FIFA from football related matters for 10 years after he was found guilty of an attempt to try and manipulate international matches.