Rio Olympics scandal: Former Sports CS Wario sentenced to six years in jail

The anti-corruption court has convicted former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario to a six-year jail term for abusing his office in connection to the Sh55 million Rio 2016 Olympics scandal.

The court however gave Wario an option of paying a fine of Sh3.6 million, in a ruling that the former Cabinet Minister described as ‘excellent’ while lifting his thumbs amid moderate celebrations at the court.

Immediately after the ruling, he engaged in a spree of hugging the tens of men and women who had accompanied him to court.

He was later whisked away by the court orderlies to the holding cells as his relatives went to process the committal order and depositing of the fine. He was convicted for three offences, all involving abuse of office.

However, his colleague in the scandal Stephen Arap Soi, who was the Chef De Mission of Team Kenya in the 2016 Olympic Games, was not lucky after the court slapped him with a fine of over Sh115 million.

Chief magistrate Elizabeth Juma fined Soi, an ex-National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) official, a fine of Sh115 million in default serve 17 years in prison.

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.

In the ruling, the magistrate noted that the Kenyan tax payers lost money as result of the acts of omission or commission of both Soi and Wario.

She said the two were entrusted with leadership of sports and to bring good performance from Rio, but in the process government lost money and this brought bad image after the corruption reports.

The magistrate noted that money which was paid as allowances to undeserving persons who did not even travel to Rio has never been recovered and no effort was made towards the recovery. Some people received allowances even for the days they were not in Rio.

The court stated that Soi accorded accreditation to a huge group of Kenyans that the office could not manage. Some of those in the list of the travelers were not even aware that they were supposed to fly to Rio to cheer to Team Kenya.

“It is true both Mr Wario and Mr Soi did not receive benefits but the budget was from the government. The excess of Sh500 million contributed by government is a huge amount of tax payers’ money that could have been used in other activities,” said the magistrate.

Wario tabled an exaggerated budget of Sh598 million to the government, said the court.

“From the conduct and evidence, he worked towards spending without guidance. Some people received more than they deserved. The evidence (by the defence) of saving Sh200 million is to hoodwink while truth is that the budget was exaggerated,” sated the magistrate.

On the complaint by Soi as to why the former Sports Principal Secretary Richard Ekai was acquitted and he was the Ministry’s accounting officer, the court said Ekai did not commit an offence. Ekai was being blamed for authourising payment of the monies.

In his complaint Soi had said by authourisng the payments, the person (Ekai) who approved the payments should have been blamed first.

“Acquittal does not mean an offence did not occur but it means no evidence from prosecution. Soi said he prepared documentation and pursued payments for the Noc-k chairman and secretary general, while knowing the costs of the two and their guests was borne by the International Olympics Committee,” said the magistrate.

Soi was convicted for conferring a benefit of Sh1.9 million to Hezekiah Kipchoge Keino and Francis Kinyili Paul.

Both Keino and Kinyili received the money as allowances to travel to Brazil, an act that resulted to loss of public funds during the Rio 2016 Olympic Games.

“As the Chef De Mission (CDM) of Team Kenya this was not his first role. He was the CDM in the past, so he knew better the two (Keino and Kinyili) did not need tickets or allowances. Therefore he cannot escape from that liability,” ruled the court.