daniel chigunwe
NAIROBI. — Suspended Football Kenya Federation president Nick Mwendwa has been charged with four counts of fraud by the country’s Directorate of Criminal Investigations.
He appeared in court yesterday and spent another night in custody with bail hearing set for today.
Mwendwa has now spent eight days behind bar since his initial arrest earlier this month.
He appeared to have found relief last week, when the DCI could not get the court’s approval to detain him for 14 more days, pending investigations, only for him to be arrested again, while driving in Nairobi, last Friday.
The total amount of money Mwendwa and others, who were not in court yesterday, are accused of taking from FKF is just over Kshs 38 million (about US$337 200).
Mwendwa was arraigned in court in Nairobi yesterday, having spent the weekend in jail, after his re-arrest on Friday.
He spent another night behind bars, with a bail hearing set for today.
According to the police documents the offences took place between March 4, and May 31, this year.
Monday’s court appearance comes two weeks after he was released on bail after a previous arrest.
Last Thursday the FKF announced the case against him was over as the court returned his Kshs 4 million (approximately US$36 000) bail money.
However, the Kenyan police later clarified that it was not the fraud case which had been closed.
“It was only a miscellaneous application by police to have Mwendwa remanded in police custody for a longer period of 14 days to enable completion of investigation before being charged formally,” Kenyan police spokesperson, Bruno Shioso, told BBC Sport Africa.
It meant the DCI continued their investigations and eventually arrested him, for a second time, with Mwendwa now being formally charged with corruption.
He was arraigned before Milimani Anti-corruption court chief magistrate, Eunice Nyutu, yesterday.
However, Mwendwa’s lawyers Eric Mutua and Mutula Kilonzo opposed the bid to have their client take a plea.
This meant Mwendwa will remain in custody until today, when the court will rule on whether he should take plea.
He was arraigned before Milimani Anti-corruption court’s Chief magistrate Eunice Nyutu on Monday, when the DPP wanted him charged with unlawful acquisition of public property.
His lawyers also questioned the legality of the charge.
Mwendwa was detained at Gigiri police cells on Friday and was picked, the following day, for further statement recording.
His arrests are over allegations related to mismanagement of public funds disbursed to the federation by the government.
The state cited fictitious withdrawals wired to private bank accounts, including those which belong to Mwendwa.
Mwendwa was driving in Ridgeways area on Kiambu Road at around mid-day, last Friday, when he was stopped and arrested by an elite unit of the DCI.
“His (Mwendwa’s) vehicle was blocked by DCI officers who bundled him into their car and sped off,” KFK chief executive, Barry Otieno, said.
“We want him to account for the money, which from the documents available was received by the federation,” said a senior officer familiar with the investigation.
Mwendwa was first arrested on November 12 and questioned by the DCI over allegations of questionable use of funds.
At the time of his arrest, he had vowed to stay put at the country’s football controlling body despite the take-over by a caretaker committee amid a probe into use of FKF funds. The federation has received Sh430 million (about US$3.8 million) from the government since 2019, with the usage of the funds now under investigation.
The 15-member FKF caretaker committee, led by retired judge Aaron Ringera, will operate for six months, starting November 11. — BBC Sport/The Standard/The Star
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