This archive report was first published on 6 January 2020.
Published on January 6, 2020, by Jeff Kinyanjui, a Nation journalist, the article highlights the controversy surrounding Machakos County's Sh13.5 million sponsorship of the 2017 Cecafa Senior Challenge Cup.
The Auditor General, Edward Ouko, flagged the expenditure during the financial audit for the 2017/2018 financial year, stating that the Ministry of Tourism, Sports and Culture made a payment of Sh13,500,000 to Football Kenya Federation (FKF) on December 21, 2017, without approval and after the tournament had ended.
The tournament was hosted in Machakos, Kisumu, and Kakamega, with Machakos Sports Officer Carlos Kioko admitting that the funds were released following a sponsorship request by FKF to Machakos.
“It was sponsorship for the Cecafa games. The county government had the policy to promote sports and market Machakos as a preferred tourism destination. The tournament offered a perfect opportunity to advance these policy objectives,” Kioko told Nation Sport.
However, the Auditor General questioned the expenditure, stating that the regularity of the payment could not be confirmed due to lack of approval, acknowledgment from FKF, and the fact that the payment was made after the games had ended.
Additionally, the Auditor General raised an alarm on the quality of the tartan track installed at the Kenyatta Stadium, now popularly referred to as the Machakos Stadium, which cost slightly over Sh37 million and started wearing out less than a year after installation.
