Legend Keino, Wario ready for Rio mess charges

Olympics legend Kipchoge Keino and former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario, who are in Mexico and Austria, respectively, are ready to plead to corruption charges, a Nairobi court heard Monday.

Mr Cecil Miller, the lawyer for Mr Keino, told Anti-Corruption Court Magistrate Douglas Ogoti that the two-time Olympic gold medallist was in Mexico to receive an award on behalf of a team of disabled athletes from Kenya that recently participated in an international championship.

“Mr Keino will be coming back tomorrow. He has learnt of the charges filed against him by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI). He is willing to plead immediately he arrives. I shall surrender him to the DCI,” Mr Miller told the court.

FINGERPRINTS

Mr Wario’s lawyer, Mr Roger Sagana, said the former minister was in Vienna, where he recently took up his posting as Kenya’s ambassador to Austria.

Mr Sagana told the court that he would accompany Mr Wario to the DCI on Thursday for his fingerprints to be taken and to record a statement for formal charging.

Mr Wario and Mr Keino are among seven individuals charged with misappropriating funds meant for the Kenyan Olympics team in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games.

Those to be charged alongside the duo are Kenya’s ambassador to Russia, Mr Richard Ekai; a former director of administration at the Sports ministry, Harun Komen; a former finance officer in the same ministry, Mr Patrick Kimathi Nkabu; a former National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) deputy treasurer, Stephen Soi; and former Nock secretary-general Francis Kanyili Paul.

EMBEZZLEMENT

The Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) accuses the seven of embezzling Sh22.59 million, purchasing air tickets worth Sh16.9 million that were not used, besides the overpayment of allowances amounting to Sh15.9 million. They also incurred expenditure on unauthorised persons amounting to Sh6.6 million.

Mr Ekai, Mr Soi and Mr Kinyili Paul denied the charges and were released yesterday on cash bail of Sh1 million and a personal bond of the same amount each. In the alternative they were granted a Sh2 million bond.

And as the lawyers fought to allow Mr Keino and Mr Wario to be allowed to present themselves in court, MPs were in Parliament defending Mr Keino and Mr Ekai.

FUNDRAISE

Soy MP Caleb Kositany even suggested that he was ready to organise a fundraiser to help collect the money that the Olympics legend is said to have embezzled “so he is left free”.

“I have a problem with this Rio report, especially on Mr Keino. Surely the old man deserves respect for what he has done for this country. We are ready to fundraise and pay for the millions he is being accused of so that he can be free,” Mr Kositany told journalists in Parliament.

For his part, Turkana Central MP John Lodepe said that Mr Ekai was cleared by the National Assembly for his current posting based on information from the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the DPP.

NEW POSTING

“It is a shame that Mr Ekai was cleared by government agencies only to be implicated later,” Mr Lodepe said.

However, the MPs said that Mr Wario, who was the Sports minister at the time, should carry his own cross.

In court, an attempt by Mr Ekai to be allowed to travel to his new posting as the ambassador to Russia was rejected by Magistrate Ogoti.

Mr Ekai told the court that he was set to travel Monday night to Moscow, where he was to start his ambassadorial duties until January 14, 2022. He was to arrive there today at around 1.30pm.

STEP ASIDE

The law requires that any State officer facing criminal charges should step aside to pave the way for investigations. For ambassadors, when they are abroad, they are immune to arrest and prosecution.

In the event that they face prosecution, just like Mr Wario and Mr Ekai, they can voluntarily present themselves or be recalled by the State.

Also, Kenya can waive their diplomatic immunity, which would automatically allow for their arrest even when outside the country.

Magistrate Ogoti ordered that Dr Wario and Mr Keino appear in court on Friday.

Reports by Maureen Kakah, Ayumba Ayodi, David Mwere and Richard Munguti

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October 16, 2018:

Editor's note: This article has been updated to remove an erroneous reference in the headline to the whereabouts of Kipchoge Keino.