Kenyan police on Friday arrested the secretary-general of the country’s Olympic committee (NOCK) in the wake of a series of scandals and embarrassments at the Rio Games.
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The Sports Minister of the country has already announced that the government has disbanded the National Olympic Committee of Kenya.
The government disbanded NOCK on Thursday, with Kenya sports minister Hassan Wario saying problems faced by the team in Rio had damaged the morale of athletes.
Kenya had an impressive Olympics, winning six gold medals, six silver and one bronze.
The Olympics finished on Sunday, but Kenyan athletes had to stay in Rio until Thursday afternoon because the country’s officials were looking for “cheaper flights” home, according to marathon runner and opposition MP Wesley Korrir.
Ahead of sprinter Ferguson Rotich’s race in Rio earlier this month, sprint coach John Anzrah borrowed the athlete’s identification card to get free breakfast in the athletes’ village.
The NOCK is also accused of mismanaging accommodation for the team, taking a huge number of joy riders to the Games, and selling off kits from Nike.
Wario has set up a committee to investigate the misconduct of the NOC-K and it will report its findings by September 30. Sprinter Carvin Nkanata was barred from competing over an accreditation mishap and another, Yego, nearly missed his flight to the Rio games because Kenyan authorities hadn’t organized his travel. When Rotich caught wind of what had happened, he informed the authorities and took the test himself, and Kip Keino, chairman of the National Olympic Committee of Kenya, claimed he didn’t even know Anzrah was there in the first place. ‘We did what we were supposed to do, and you should ask the right people for answers.
He said the measures are in addition to his request to the directorate of criminal investigations to carry out investigations on the said mismanagement allegations.
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He cited Kenya’ s Sports Act 2013 as the legislation that gave him powers to disband NOCK.
