Kipchoge Keino gets his day with cops

What you need to know:

  • Sports federations now want NOC-K accounts frozen
  • The federations want Sports Kenya barred from operating NOC-K accounts until a new office and constitution are in place.

The National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOC-K) chairman Kipchoge Keino was on Tuesday grilled for several hours at Directorate of Crimination Investigations (DCI) headquarters.

However, unlike four of his colleagues who were arrested, grilled and locked up before appearing in court, the legendary athlete was later released without any charges being preferred against him.

Rio Olympics Team Kenya chef de mission Stephen Soi, chief executive officer James Chacha, general team manager Pius Ochieng and NOC-K secretary general Francis Paul were detained following Team Kenya’s mismanagement at the Rio Olympic Games.

Save for Soi, who was later hospitalised, the rest appeared at Milimani Laws Courts on Monday and were released on cash bail. Soi was to appear at the same court Tuesday afternoon.

“They summoned me in the morning and I was there for several hours,” said Keino in a telephone interview. Keino, who had earlier challenged Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario’s move to disband NOC-K, said he will not resign and failed to divulge more information on his grilling.

“Let the police do their work since they are the ones who initiated the whole process,” he added. “It will also be wise to wait for the report from the probe committee Wario has appointed.”

As the purge on Rio Olympics Games continued, Sports federations want NOC-K accounts frozen until the DCI officers and the probe committee are through with their investigations.

At the same time, the federations want Sports Kenya barred from operating NOC-K accounts until a new office and constitution are in place. The federations’ top officials were speaking on Monday evening at an open forum with Wario, who disbanded NOC-K and transferred its duties to Sports Kenya on Thursday last week.

“While the DCI are investigating, we shall have to look at terms of reference of the probe committee and the mandate of Sports Kenya,” said Athletics Kenya President lieutenant general (retired) Jackson Tuwei.

“We must look at NOC-K accounts and assets before anything else.” Tuwei said Sports Kenya should just mid-wife in the whole NOCK issue as the government looks for ways to engage the International Olympic Committee (IOC) diplomatically.

Boxing Association of Kenya (BAK) chairman John Kameta said NOC-K accounts must be frozen until a new office is in place.

“Sports Kenya has no mandate to operate NOCK accounts until the federations allow for such…you just can’t trust anyone with what is in NOCK’s accounts,” said Kameta. “The federations should convene a meeting and discuss the way forward since we can’t operate in a vacuum.”

Kenya Volleyball Federation (KVF) chairman Waithaka Kioni said even though obsolete, NOCK constitution has provisions on how to deal with the rogue officials at NOC-K.