PRESIDENT’S WARNING

President Uhuru Kenyatta has warned that those who messed up during last year’s Rio Olympic games will be held to account.

In his end-of-year message to Kenyans, the President said he had received the probe report on the games.

“I have received the report on the Rio games and some of the recommendations were on how we can change the team selection. Secondly, the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) is looking at whether action needs to be taken on those responsible for the Rio mess.

“One thing I want to assure is that someone will be held to account for what happened in Rio,” he said.

The probe report was released last November. Already, a number of National Olympic Committee of Kenya (NOCK) officials have been arraigned in court over the Rio fiasco.

Among the issues pointed out by the report is the presence of joyriders.
The joyriders, who included relatives of Olympic officials, cost the taxpayer more than Sh10 million.

More millions were lost in allowances paid to officials who never traveled to Rio.
The investigative committee report takes issue with the games’ Steering Committee for sending 16 of its members to Rio.

“A total of 16 members of the Steering Committee were in the contingent. Considering that in Rio, the National Olympic of Kenya (NOCK) was in charge of athletes, at most there should have been only five members of the committee.

“Therefore, Team Kenya had 11 excess Steering Committee members,” says the probe report.

Each of the Steering Committee members was paid Sh975,146.88, which means that Kenya would have saved Sh10,726,615 by cutting down on this number.

In total, the Government spent Sh15,612,318 on allowances for Steering Committee members.

The report also points out that there were four extra physiotherapists in the team.

“As per the IOC medical workbook, a team should carry one physiotherapist for every eight athletes. Team Kenya had 14 physiotherapists for 80 athletes which is four more than is needed,” states the report.

Each of the physiotherapist was paid an allowance of Sh914,200.

The report further takes issue with Sports Kenya for carrying an extra member of staff.

“Much as it was important that Sports Kenya sends a representative to the games, one person was sufficient. There was no point of having both the Director General and the Chairman travelling to Rio,” says part of the report.