Ugandan match fixing agent nabbed in Kenya league deal

A Ugandan national will today appear before a Kisumu court where he will face immigration and corruption related charges for attempting to fix a Betking Premier league match. 

Fred Ronald Niwagira Mwine was on Saturday arrested at a Kisumu hotel trying to bribe four Western Stima players and the team manager in order to lose yesterday’s Kenynan Premier League fixture against KCB.
At the time of his arrest, Mwine was found with over Shs70,000 in a Kisumu hotel while attempting to fix the KPL match at Nakuru Afraha Stadium.

According to a police report, Laban Jobita, chairman of Western Stima, was approached by a man to Museum View Hotel for a meeting.

Jobita said they decided to set the trap for the Ugandan national after he heard of reports of what he had planned to do.

“When we got the tip, I gave a go-ahead to the four players and the team manager to go to Museum View Hotel, record the conversation and tip me once the Ugandan national had placed the cash on the table,” said Jobita.

He told Nation Sport, a sister paper of Daily Monitor, that he started following up the matter after he had reports that his players had been approached prior to the AFC Leopards fixture on December 18 in Nairobi where they won 2-0.
Jobita said his players admitted being approached by a suspicious character asking them to lose 3-0 to AFC Leopards.

“They, however, took the money offered but played their hearts out beating AFC 2-0. I then asked the players and the team manager to alert me when they are approached again so that we could catch the fixer red handed,” said Jobita.
When he was alerted of another attempt having heard that Niwagira was looking for his players on Friday, he decided to have the team manager Moses Nyalik accompany them on Saturday at the venue of the planned meeting.

Throughout this time, Nyalik had made a call to Jobita who had received and was listening in on the whole conversation until that time when the cash was offered.

According to Jobita, Mwine was offering KShs500,000 (about Shs17m) to be shared among the four players and the team manager.

The suspect gave out KShs10,000 (Shs335,000) purportedly being lunch pending payment of Shs500,000 upon successfully losing the game. 

“Immediately our officers arrested the said person and established that he is a Ugandan national by the name Mwine whose immigration status has expired,” read the police report.

The suspect was later found in possession of more KSh61,600 (Shs2m) in cash. 
“They were to lose 4-0, two goals on each half when they play KCB on Sunday,” said Jobita.
The suspect was grilled by DCI officers at Kisumu Central Police Station for more than five hours and is set to be charged today.

The Crime...What you need to know 

Former Mathare United defender George Owino was banned by Fifa from football related matters for 10 years after he was found guilty of an attempt to try and manipulate international matches.
[email protected]