Africa-Press – Kenya. A court sitting in Nairobi has convicted former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and National Olympic Committee Kenya official Stephen Soi.
The two were on Wednesday, September 15 found guilty of corruption and abuse of office linked to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
The court also acquitted four others suspects in the case due to lack of sufficient evidence. The four include; Former Sports PS Richard Ekai, Haron Komen, former director of administration at the Ministry of Sports, Francis Kinyili and Patrick Kimathi Nkabu.
Magistrate Elizabeth Juma stated that Wario took abused his office and approved the inclusion of three other persons travel to Rio.
The court noted that Wario abused his office when he allowed the three to be awarded allowances as part of team Kenya.
Magistrate Juma stated that there was a wastage of resources and the budget for the Olympics had to be tailored adding that not everyone involved in the planning should have travelled.
Wario and Soi will be detained at Gigiri Police Station pending their sentencing on Thursday, September 16, after the Office of the Director of Public Prosecution headed by Noordin Haji successfully made their case.
He becomes the highest-ranking official in President Uhuru Kenyatta’s administration to be convicted of graft.
The trained anthropologist served in Uhuru’s Cabinet from 2013 to 2018 when he was demoted and appointed Ambassador to Austria where he serves to date.
Wario was facing a corruption case involving the loss of Ksh55 million that was set aside for the Rio 2016 Olympic Games financial scandal.
He had earlier been charged with 4 counts, the first count being engaging in a project without prior planning contrary to Section 45 (2) (c) as read with sections 48 (1) of the Anti-Corruption and Economic Crimes Act No. 3 of 2003.
The former CS also faced abuse of office charges. He was accused of conferring a benefit to three persons by including them on the list of delegation to Rio.
Wario stated that in his position as CS he had the power to organize the human resource affairs of the ministry.
The former CS testified that he had the power to authorize the travel for Richard Abura and Monica Sairo to carry out communication functions for the Ministry.
According to Wario, during the period leading to the Olympics Kenya faced negative publicity over doping and it was essential for the Ministry to have employees in charge of communications.
