Ekai and 6 others including former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and former National Olympics Committee of Kenya Chairman Kipchoge Keino are facing six counts of abuse of office and 4 counts of willful failure to comply with laws relating to the management of public funds contrary to the Anti-Corruption and Economics Crimes Act/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 14- Former-Principal Secretary Richard Ekai is being held in police custody over misappropriation of Sh55 million meant for the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Ekai and 6 others including former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario and former National Olympics Committee of Kenya Chairman Kipchoge Keino are facing six counts of abuse of office and 4 counts of willful failure to comply with laws relating to the management of public funds contrary to the Anti-Corruption and Economics Crimes Act.
Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Hajji says the seven may have overseen the embezzlement of 22.4million shillings and purchase of air tickets which were not utilized amounting to Sh16.8 million.
This also includes overpayment of allowances amounting to Sh15.9 million and incurring expenditure on unauthorized persons amounting to Sh6.5 million.
Haji has given the seven up to tomorrow to surrender themselves to the Director of Criminal Investigation Headquarters while the Asset Recovery Agency has been directed to kick off the recovery of public funds which was unlawfully used by the suspects.
“The DCI undertook investigations which established that various offences were committed in the manner in which the funds allocated for the RIO Olympic were managed,” reads a section of DPP’s statement released on Saturday.
“The inquiry file was submitted to the DPP with recommendations to charge various persons involved in the management of the Games. However, a number of issues were found which needed to be covered to strengthen the prosecution case.”
The DPP also directed Director of Criminal investigations George Kinoti to commence investigations into donations made to the NOCK and contracts between NOCK and NIKE and the utilization of monies realized there.
In 2016, Wario, then Sports CS, set up a probe team which revealed that top officials in the Sports ministry had embezzled Sh88 million meant for air tickets to the games and recommended the prosecution of those found culpable.
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