“IOC doesn’t have athletes under their control, the control is from the national federations, so what is it that they want from us? They want us to test athletes twice before Olympics but we will do it thrice.” PHOTO/Raymond Makhaya.
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 8 – NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 8 – Embattled Team Kenya head of delegation for the Rio Olympic Games, Stephen arap Soi has finally appeared in court to face abuse of office and theft charges over the mismanagement of the team at the concluded games in Brazil.
Soi, who failed to appear before court twice, was on Thursday released on a Sh200,000 cash bail pending the hearing on September 19 alongside three other NOCK officials; vice chairman Pius Ochieng, Secretary General F.K Paul and Treasurer Fridah Shiroyah.
Just like Ochieng, F.K Paul and Shiroyah, who were released on the same bail terms, Soi was also ordered to deposit his passport with the court.
The four officials will be reporting to the CID Headquarters twice a week and were barred from accessing the NOCK offices to make sure they don’t interfere with witnesses for the remaining period until investigations are complete.
The NOCK officials have appeared before the Parliamentary Committee of Labour, Social and Welfare to explain the mess that brought shame to the country in the games where Kenya recorded her best ever performance harvesting 13 medals, 6 gold, 6 silver and 1 bronze.
During the committee proceedings held over two days, all the blame was thrown to Soi, who revealed that Sh2.1mn was paid to book a cruise ship in Rio de Janeiro for President Uhuru Kenyatta who never travelled to the games.
However, State House rejected the claims saying that only the Foreign Affairs Ministry would handle such a booking and not NOCK.
Soi further shocked the committee Wednesday when he admitted to have withdrawn Sh25mn given by the ministry of Sports, Culture and Arts which he converted into dollars to travel with to Rio.
The NOCK officials will return to the committee on Tuesday next week to explain the missing of Team Kenya kits that was released by official sponsor Nike after athletes complained they did not receive all the uniforms.
Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and Arts, Hassan Wario was not spared either as he was grilled by the same committee to shed more light on his mandate to disband NOCK as well as the ministry’s role at the games.
Wario said NOCK was responsible for the Rio mess that saw two officials; athletics team manager Major (Rtd) Michael Rotich and sprints coach John Anzrah deported from the games.
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