KCA executive could face corruption charges

Ochilo Ayacko, the sports minister who last week dissolved the Kenyan Cricket Association, returned to the country from an overseas trip and defiantly insisted that the normalisation committee he appointed was still running the game there. His comments came after the existing KCA executive went to court to get a stay on the order suspending them from office.

And Ayacko slammed Joshua Okuthe, the chairman of the Kenya National Sports Council, who publicly came out in support of the old executive and criticised the minister's action, accusing him of "misleading the public on matters relating to cricket".

Okuthe held a press conference with Sharad Ghai, the suspended KCA chairman, last weekend, and was highly critical of the minister. Okuthe has been widely scorned for his comments, with many opponents of the board accusing him of being too closely allied to Ghai to be able to make any impartial remarks. "He knows what it means to embarrass your boss," warned Ayacko. "I am his boss."

Ayacko also scorned the KCA's move in reverting to the courts to try to regain control. "Some people in the KCA asked the court to restrain the ministry from taking action," he fumed. "What they did not tell the court is that at the time they lodged their plaint, KCA had no officials, and a Normalisation Committee had been registered."

He went on to insist that the government had a strong case against the KCA whose officials would, he said, soon be taken to court to face corruption charges. "This is serious," he explained. "The kind of monies that were intended for benefit of cricket that have been lost are huge.

"You can be assured that our hands are free, our government and my ministry is committed to fighting corruption," he added. "I cannot disclose the evidence I have since I may prejudice investigations."

Cricinfo has learned that documents have come to hand in the last few days which could prove to be extremely embarrassing for some of the old KCA executive. Investigations are believed to centre on allegations that millions of dollars have gone missing from various events, especially the 1999 LG Trophy which was held in Nairobi. Although income from the tournament exceeded $4million, it is thought that less than $200,000 ended up going to the KCA. But so muddled are the board's accounts, that the whole story will take some unravelling.