Is Kenya now a match fixing nation?

Match-fixing allegations have hit Kenyan sport yet again, with Fifa’s ongoing investigation against former Kenyan international defender George Owino being only the latest.

In a 10-page preliminary investigation report seen by the Nation Sport, Fifa has established a prima facie case against defender George Owino Audi for potentially committing breaches of the world football governing body’s Code of Ethics between June 2009 and 2011.

Fifa says Owino, 37, agreed to commit himself and several unidentified Harambee Stars players to play under instruction from Perumal.

Fifa also says Owino conspired with Perumal to seek recruitment into an unidentified football club in Australia, where the two planned to manipulate matches in exchange for more money.

Only last week, Kenyan Premier League side Kakamega Homeboyz sacked their Ugandan coach Paul Nkata over similar allegations.

“He has been using one of the players to influence the other six with a figure of between Sh50,000 and Sh200,000 per game,” Homeboyz patron Cleophas Shimanyula claimed on Tuesday last week after firing the Ugandan coach alongside his assistant Hamza Kalanzi.

In August 2004, the Kenyan Cricket Association banned former captain Maurice Odumbe for five years after he was found to have had “inappropriate contact with a bookmaker”.

Odumbe was found guilty on 12 counts, including accepting $5,000 (Sh500,000) from Indian bookmaker Jagdish Sodha for “fixing a match in Zimbabwe” through his India connections between January and October 2002.

The International Cricket Council at the time termed the decision entirely appropriate. Odumbe has all along maintained his innocence.