Former Sports CS Wario charged with abuse of office

Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario on October 19 pleaded not guilty to charges of misappropriating Ksh 55 million meant to facilitate athletes during the Rio Olympics in 2016.

Former Director of Administration in the Ministry of Sports Harun Komen and Former Finance Officer Patrick Nkabu who appeared before Chief Magistrate Douglas Ogoti at the Anti-Corruption Court in Nairobi alongside the former CS also denied the charges.

Wario, Komen and Nkabu denied the charges and were released on a Ksh2 million cash bond with a similar surety, Sh1 million personal bond or alternative cash bail of a similar amount.

The former Sports Ministry honchos were charged with;

• embezzlement of Ksh22 million,
• purchase of air tickets worth Ksh16,872,497 which were not utilized,
• overpayment of allowances amounting to Ksh15,907,900
• incurring expenditure on unauthorized persons amounting to Ksh 6,590,286.

The former CS Wario was arrested on October 18 after surrendering himself to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters as directed by Director of Public Prosecutions Noordin Haji.

DPP Haji had on October 13 ordered that Wario and Former Sports Principal Secretary Richard Ekai be arraigned in court in relation to the scam.

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Haji had also directed that athletics legend Kipchoge Keino, former Secretary General National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOCK) Francis Kanyili, former NOCK Chief De Mission, Deputy Treasurer Stephen Kiptanui, Nkabu and Komen be also arraigned.

Keino’s plea taking was deferred for seven days after Haji requested the court for more time for further assessment.

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It is unclear why Keino did not take plea together with the rest with numerous media reports intimating that detectives might use Keino as a prosecution witness against Wario and the other officials implicated in the scam.