Kenyan court jails ex-sports minister for six years for corruption

NAIROBI, Sept. 16 (Reuters) – A Kenyan court on Thursday sentenced a former sports minister to six years in prison after convicting him of embezzling funds intended for athletes at the Brazilian Olympics five years ago.

The East African nation had its most successful Olympics in Rio, winning six gold, six silver and one bronze in track and field, but the performance was marred by allegations of corruption among senior government officials and team leaders.

A Nairobi district court found Hassan Wario, then sports minister, guilty of abuse of power in connection with the loss of funds.

In rendering a decision in the case which began in 2018, the court gave Wario, who was appointed Kenyan Ambassador to Austria after serving in the government, the alternative of paying a fine of 3.6 million shillings. ($ 32,742) to avoid going to jail.

Stephen Soi, who was the team leader and was tried alongside Wario, was convicted of corruption and was sentenced to 10 years in prison or fined 103 million shillings.

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s government charged dozens of senior officials with various crimes as part of a crackdown on corruption in 2018 and 2019.

The Wario case is one of the first to be concluded.

($ 1 = 109.9500 Kenyan shillings)

Reporting by Monicah Mwangi; Writing by Duncan Miriri; Editing by Andrew Cawthorne

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