Athletics: Kenya’s Official Banned for Life Over Funds Diversion

Former senior Kenyan athletics official David Okeyo has been banned from the sport for life and fined $50,000 after being found guilty of diverting hundreds of thousands of dollars of sponsorship payments for his personal use.

Okeyo, a former Secretary-General and Vice President of Athletics Kenya (AK) as well as a member of the IAAF Council, and Joseph Kinyua, a former Treasurer of Athletics Kenya, were investigated by the sport’s ethics board in relation to payments made by U.S. sportswear company Nike between 2003 and 2015.

In a 74-page judgement released on Thursday, the Board found that on many occasions Okeyo did not disclose to AK the withdrawals of the Nike money he made from AK bank accounts and he could also not show any evidence of what the money had been used for.

He was thus found to have breached the ethics code on 10 occasions after taking sponsorship money that “could have been better directed to support the development of the sport of athletics in Kenya” and expelled him from his position on the IAAF Council.

He was ordered to pay the $50,000 fine to AK.

August 30, 2018