It was reprieve for Stephen Arap Soi when the High Court overturned his 17-year sentence on a technicality that happened during his sentencing.
This is after he successfully appealed that a chief magistrate had convicted him on charges that had not been canvased by the prosecutor.
Soi who was a National Olympics Committee of Kenya (NOC) official, was sentenced for 17 years in prison or pay a fine of Ksh105 million.
He was accused of misappropriating Ksh55 million during the controversial Rio 2016 Olympics.
The money was misappropriated through excess allowance payments to Kenyan team that had gone to represent the country at Rio Olympics.
On November 16, 2021, a Chief Magistrate found Soi guilty of eight counts of corruption-related offences.
Soi had been convicted alongside the then Cabinet Secretary for sports Hassan Wario who has a pending appeal.
With the NOC official unable to raise the hefty fine, he started serving his sentence at Kamiti Maximum Prison on November 2021.
He lodged an appeal at the High Court terming the conviction unfair, malicious, discriminative, and stemming from misinterpretation of the law.
High Court entirely overturned the lower courts ruling and ordered Soi be released immediately on November 24, 2022.
"The court has found merit in the appeal and it has allowed it, quashed the conviction and set aside the sentences
"The court directs that Soi be released set at liberty forthwith unless otherwise lawfully held," a High Court judge ruled.
