Ex-Sports CS Wario cleared over 2016 Rio Olympics scam
Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario walks out of the Milimani Anti-Corruption Courts in Nairobi on September 16, 2021, after he was released upon paying a fine of Sh3.6 million in Rio Olympics case.
What you need to know:
- Lady Justice Patricia Nyaundi quashed the conviction and sentence handed down to the former sports CS by the then anti-corruption court magistrate Elizabeth Juma.
- Setting aside the sentence, Lady Justice Nyaundi concurred with lawyer Rodgers Sagana for Wario that the magistrate misapplied the law when she handed down the sentence.
Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario, who had been jailed over the Rio Olympics scandal, has been cleared of any wrong doing by the High Court.
Lady Justice Patricia Nyaundi quashed the conviction and sentence handed down to the former sports CS by the then anti-corruption court magistrate Elizabeth Juma.
Setting aside the sentence, Lady Justice Nyaundi concurred with lawyer Rodgers Sagana for Wario that the magistrate misapplied the law when she handed down the sentence.
Sagana had told the judge that the magistrate erred in law and fact in finding that Wario had engaged in corruption.
On September 15, 2021, Juma slapped the former CS with a fine of Sh3.6 million or serve six years in default.
Wario paid the fine immediately and was freed from custody.
All the six Rio Olympics scandal convicts are free after the quashing of sentences and convictions imposed on them by the graft court.
The Chef De Mission of Team Kenya in the 2016 Olympic Games Stephen Soi was set free by lady Justice Esther Maina on November 24, 2022 after staying in prison for 14 months.
“Upon evaluating the evidence as a whole I find that the prosecution did not prove the case beyond reasonable doubt, the defence offered by the appellants (soi) was clearly ignored by the trial magistrate yet it watered down the prosecutions’ case,” Justice Maina ruled while acquitting Soi.
"The adage that it is better to acquit 99 guilty persons rather than convict one innocent person applies to such cases as this and I accordingly find that the conviction of the appellants is not safe.”
Wario was convicted for three offences of abuse of office by allowing three Ministry of Sports officials to travel to Rio Brazil in July 2016 during the Olympic games.
The three were Adan Omar Enow (Director at the Sports Fund), Richard Abura (Assistant Director of public communications) and Monica Sairo (deputy Assistant Director of public communications).
The court said their travel was improper as Wario tinkered with the list of Kenya’s delegation so as to include them leading to loss of public funds.
According to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the former CS conferred a benefit of Sh1.5 million to Enow while Abura and Sairo got Sh918,391 each.
The state will refund Wario Sh3.6million which he had paid as a fine since he committed no wrong.
Soi, who faced six counts, was slapped with a fine of over Sh115 million or serve 17 years in prison.
He failed to raise the fine but was eventually cleared by the high court of any wrong doing.
The retired police boss was found guilty of six counts –three on abuse of office and three on willful failure to comply with applicable procedures and guidelines relating to management of public funds.
Convicting the accused Justice Juma had noted that the Kenyan tax payer lost money as result of the acts of omission or commission of both Soi and Wario.
