The head of delegation of team Kenya to the Rio Olympic Games Stephen Soi turned up the heat on the government painting a picture of extravagant officials that made requests for accommodation that totalled about 2 million shillings but were never occupied.
The embattled official absolved the National Olympic Committee of Kenya from blame insisting that his team oversaw the country’s best ever showing at the Olympic games as he appeared before the Labour and Social Welfare Committee at County Hall, Nairobi on Tuesday.
Soi, the alleged chief architect of the problems that affected the team in the Brazilian city revealed that millions of shillings was spent in luxurious accommodation for absentee persons.
He appeared before the committee soon after the Ministry of Sports officials led by the Cabinet Secretary for Sports Dr Hassan Wario Permanent Secretary Richard Ekai, who insisted NOCKshould be held accountable for the mess.
According to Soi the procured rooms for key officials including the President of Kenya, Chairperson of both Senate and Parliamentary Committee on Labour and Social Welfare, President of Athletics Kenya and Chairman of Anti Doping Agency of Kenya among others.
Two rooms were procured at the Luxury Cruise Ship for 18 days at a cost of 605 US dollars (Ksh.61, 105) per day which totaled up to Ksh. 2.19 million. However the rooms went unoccupied.
Two rooms were also paid in advance at the Othon Palace at a cost of 564 US dollars per day for 18 days (Ksh. 2.05 million) but the rooms also went unoccupied.
In his defence, Soi one of the four NOCK officials who were arrested upon return from Rio,told the committee that the rooms were paid for in advance.
The Secretary General Francis Paul, Vice chairman Pius Ochieng and Treasurer Fridah Shiroya were grilled and charged in court with various counts ranging from abuse of office and released in cash bonds.
Kits were stored in Nock office, Kipchoge
“We do not believe we mismanaged the team. Look at the performance of the team put and you will see that it was the best in the last 60 years. Accommodation was paid in advance and that was out of our hands.”
NOCK President Kipchoge Keino shed some light on the uniforms scandal that saw police raid their offices and recover bags of kits meant for athletes.
"Yes we went into an agreement with Nike and they supplied us with kits. They sent us kits meant for 18 different disciplines, some of which Kenya did not have participants for at the olympics. So those are the kits that we had stored at our offices when the police came." Kipchoge said.
The session was adjourned by Chairman David Were to Wednesday afternoon when Keino and his team including Secretary General James Chacha will face the committee to answer questions regarding NOCK's mismanagement of the team that travelled to Brazil.
