Former Kenyan minister found guilty of embezzlement at 2016 Games – 09/17/2021

Nairobi, September 16 (EFE). – Former Sports Minister Hassan Wario was sentenced Thursday to six years in prison – avoidable with a fine of 3.6 million shillings (about 170,000 Brazilian reais) – for embezzlement at the 2016 Olympic Games, in Rio de Janeiro. Janeiro.

Wario was one of six officials accused of abuse of power and embezzlement of 55 million shillings (2.6 million Brazilian reals) of public funds at the Rio de Janeiro Games used to pay unauthorized persons.

Judge Elizabeth Jumaa, a former minister, who was removed from the position of Kenya’s ambassador to Austria in 2019, was convicted in the Nairobi High Court.

The judge explained, according to the local press, that “a misuse of money occurred during the Olympic Games in Rio. This is not the spirit of the Olympic Charter. The budget for the Games must be adapted to the needs.”

On Thursday, the judge also sentenced the leader of the Kenyan Olympic team in Rio, Stephen Arap Soi, to 12 years in prison, which can be avoided by paying a fine of 105 million shillings (just over 5 million Brazilian reais).

Four other defendants were acquitted in a lawsuit in which a former athlete and former head of the Kenya National Olympic Committee Kipchoge Keno served as the main witness in the prosecution.

The former athlete was also eventually charged with abuse of power and violation of laws relating to the management of public resources, but those charges were dropped in 2018 after it was established that he was not involved in the scandal.

Kipchoge Keino became a sporting legend after winning gold in the 1500m event at the 1968 Olympics in Mexico City and four years later in Munich in the 3000m event.