Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Hassan Wario had cut a forlorn figure since he was charged with corruption in October 2018.
He rarely mingled with his five co-accused persons throughout the three-year trial and calculatedly avoided cameras while preferring to read newspapers or converse with his lawyer in hushed tones.
On Wednesday he sat pensively in the courtroom as the trial magistrate declared him guilty of involvement in the Sh55 million Rio Olympics scandal, in which officials pocketed cash meant for athletes representing Kenya in the global sports fest.
The troubled look however changed suddenly, when the court yesterday sentenced Mr Wario to a Sh3.6 million cash fine or six-year jail term in default.
The former CS jumped in joy and hugged his lawyer as well as his supporters who had attended his sentencing by a Nairobi court.
The many friends and family dressed in hijabs mobbed him with hugs as he wore a wide smile with teary eyes.
Asked by this writer his feelings and reaction to the court ruling, Mr Wario shouted “excellent” while lifting his fists and thumbs up in the air, as he was led away by court orderlies to the holding cells.
Three hours later, the slim and towering man was out of custody after he paid the Sh3.6 million fine. Outside the court, he was received by immediate family members who included his mother, Hawa Wario.
He was found guilty of three offences of abuse of office by irregularly allowing three Ministry of Sports officials to travel to Rio Brazil in July 2016 during the Olympic games.
The three were named as Adan Omar Enow (Director at the Sports Fund), Richard Abura (Assistant Director of public communications) and Monica Sairo (deputy Assistant Director of public communications).
The court said their travel was improper, as Mr Wario tinkered with the list of the Kenyan delegation so as to include them leading to a loss of public funds.
According to Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP), the former CS conferred a benefit of Sh1.5 million to Mr Enow while Mr Abura and Ms Sairo got Sh918,391 each.
The court was informed about the benefits conferred on each of the three Thursday, ahead of the sentencing. The move caused a protest from Mr Wario’s lawyer, Rodgers Sagana.
Chief magistrate Elizabeth Juma concurred with the lawyer that the amounts of public funds lost were not indicated in the charge sheet, offering an indication why the former CS got a much lower fine than his co-accused, Mr Stephen Arap Soi, who was slapped with a Sh115 million fine or 17 years imprisonment in default.
“Court agrees with Mr Sagana that as drawn on the charge sheet there was no quantifiable amount but that does not mean no amount was lost,” said the magistrate.
She noted that failure to indicate on the charge sheet the amount lost did not mean that Mr Wario was not responsible because the witnesses testified that the beneficiaries received the allowances.
All the other charges levelled against Mr Wario’s co-accused persons indicated figures of the public funds lost.
The DPP had preferred four charges against Mr Wario, three on abuse of office and one on engaging in a project without prior planning.
In its judgement, the court found there was no evidence to support the latter charge. Evidence showed Mr Wario and the National Olympics Steering Committee had planned well for the games and that the preparations, including the budgetary allocations, started two years earlier.
Lawyer Sagana pointed out to court that during the trial, the DPP made more than four amendments on the charge sheet. All the 19 counts in the document had quantifiable figures, except those facing the former CS.
“The principle of criminal justice lies with the charge sheet. The DPP deliberately excluded the three counts from any quantifiable gain or loss (attributable) to Mr Wario,” said the lawyer.
“Upon conviction, we cannot start to defend a new charge sheet with quantifiable losses or gains,” said the lawyer.
He urged the court to use its discretion in punishing Mr Wario considering the absence of the figures in the charge sheet.
The lawyer also described Mr Wario as a changed man and a law-abiding citizen after the events of Rio fiasco, who is receptive to rehabilitation.
“The offender is remorseful. We learn from our mistakes. The mistakes strengthen us and take us to resilience. He is not a threat to the community and has no pending charges. He has been sufficiently punished,” said Mr Sagana.
The court agreed with the prosecution’s submission that Mr Wario tabled an exaggerated budget of Sh598 million to the government.
Spending without guidance
“From the conduct and evidence, he worked towards spending without guidance. Some people received more than they deserved. The evidence (by the defence) of saving Sh200 million is to hoodwink while truth is that the budget was exaggerated,” stated the magistrate.
However, Mr Wario’s co-convict in the scandal, Mr Stephen Arap Soi, who was the Chef De Mission of Team Kenya in the 2016 Olympic Games, was not so lucky.
The court fined Mr Soi, an ex-National Olympic Committee of Kenya (Nock) official, Sh115 million, more than double the amount of public funds said to have been lost, or 17 years imprisonment in default.
The retired police boss was found guilty of six counts –three on abuse of office and three on willful failure to comply with applicable procedures and guidelines relating to management of public funds.
In the ruling, the magistrate noted that Kenyan tax payers lost money as result of the acts of omission or commission of both Mr Soi and Mr Wario.
She said the two were entrusted with leadership of the sports and to bring home good performances from Rio, but in the process government lost money and the corruption reports damaged the country’s image.
The magistrate noted that the money that was paid as allowances to undeserving persons who did not even travel to Rio have never been recovered, and that no effort was made towards their recovery. Some people received allowances even for the days they were not in Rio.
The court stated that Mr Soi accorded accreditation to a huge group of Kenyans that the office could not manage. Some of those in the list of travelers were not even aware that they were supposed to fly to Rio to cheer the Kenyan team.
