Soi’s wife was not a ‘joyrider’ at Rio 2016 Olympics

The Rio 2016 Olympics Probe Committee acknowledges a number of joy riders travelled with the team to Brazil but the wife of embattled Head of Mission, Stephen arap Soi was not one of them.

Juliet Chepkorir Maritim who is the spouse of National Olympics Committee-Kenya (Nock) boss Soi was not categorised among those who travelled to Brazil on a government ticket with no official duties as ‘widely reported in local media’ according to the report.

“It was established that much as she travelled to Rio to join her husband who had gone their earlier, she paid for her own ticket and was not paid for by the government. She also paid for her own accommodation and was not staying at the Olympic Games Village. Proof of payment was made available to the committee,” the report says.

It goes ahead to pin-point where free loaders were to be found despite the terse assurances from Cabinet Secretary for Sports, Culture and the Arts, Dr. Hassan Wario there would be no joyriders in Brazil.

“It was widely reported that team Kenya had excess people in its contingent, some of whom had nothing at all to do with the team. The Probe committee in pursuant of its 79 mandate tried to rationalise the entire travel list of team Kenya and below are the people it found were not needed,” the yet to be officially released report underscored.

It cites the medical team where “As per the International Olympics Committee medical workbook, a team should carry one physiotherapist for every eight athletes. Team Kenya had 14 physiotherapists for 80 athletes. Therefore Team Kenya had 4 excess physiotherapists.”

It reports that 16 members of the Steering Committee, the body charged with managing Team Kenya travelled to Brazil for the August Summer Games.

“Considering that in Rio, Nock was in charge of the athletes, at most there should have been only 5 members of the steering committee. Therefore Team Kenya had 11 excess Steering Committee members,” it added.

“Much as it was important that Sports Kenya sends a representative to the games, one person was sufficient and there was no point of having both the Director General and the Chairman going to Rio. Sports Kenya carried one excess staff,” the report outlined.

Soi is out on bail on five charges related to theft of Government and Nock monies meant for Team Kenya at the Rio Olympics.