By Samuel Ouma
Kenya’s anti-corruption court today found the former sports minister Hassan Wario guilty of embezzlement of public funds and abuse of office over the Rio 2016 Olympic Games financial scandal.
The court’s Magistrate Elizabeth Juma on Wednesday said that it has sufficient evidence linking Wario and ex-National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) official Stephen Soi to the loss of ksh88.6 million ($886000) during the global event.
Their co-accused, former Principal Secretary Richard Ekai, Haron Komen, Francis Paul and Patrick Kimathi Nkabu were acquitted by the court due to the lack of evidence.
While convicting Wario, the Magistrate said he took advantage of his position and added three people in the list of Team Kenya and had them paid allowances yet he had no mandate to do so.
“The additional names were included after they closed the accreditation. Clearly this was an indicator that the three were not part of the team Kenya,”ruled the court.
However, the Nairobi-based court acquitted the ex-minister from the count of engaging in a project without a prior planning as there was no evidence.
The two are detained at Gigiri Police Post pending sentencing tomorrow.
