By Gathua Miricho
Camp Toyoyo soccer stadium in Jericho estate is on the verge of collapse due to corruption and mismanagement.
Several committee members have been accused of turning the CDF project into a cash cow.
According to their treasurer, Mr. Jairo ‘Jaya’ Willis, some committee members embezzled close to Ksh. 3 million in August last year.
Mr. Jaya claims that despite being the treasurer, he was kept in the dark and only came to find out about the shady dealings when he went to the bank.
The committee members whose signatures were used to withdraw the money are Mr. Job Munyi, Sharon Achieng’ and Kennedy Bunyasi.
The stadium’s bank account has four signatories, Mr. Munyi, Mr. Bunyasi Ms. Achieng and Jaya as the fourth.
However, only three signatures are needed for any transaction to be made.
Jaya says he found out that the transactions were made a few days before the August 8th General Elections.
Jaya further says the stadium’s sports officials have not been remitting the Ksh 20,000 collected per day from the stadium since September last year.
If calculated to date, money that has not been banked is over Ksh 5 Million.
Makadara MP George Aladwa has admitted loss of funds at Camp Toyoyo.
He says the current officials have refused to leave office, despite him writing severally to them.
“Money collected from the bank has never been banked since my election. The officials have even become violent and have vowed not to leave the office,” said Aladwa.
Munyi has been largely accused of working in cahoots with some committee members to aide him in misappropriation of funds.
“Since the stadium was a CDF project, Job Munyi who is the fund manager was given an oversight role. This meant that his was only to give guidance to the committee. He was not to involve himself with the day to day running of the stadium. However, Mr. Munyi was able to make himself a signatory of the stadium’s accounts and he has been siphoning funds from their accounts ever since,” said Jaya.
Camp Toyoyo was the first neighborhood sports ground in Kenya to be equipped with an Astro turf.
The grounds were refurbished at a cost of Ksh 50 million which came from the Makadara constituency CDF fund.
As a result of being community owned, some members from the community were appointed to aide in its management. The list of the members appointed was as follows:
| GROUP | NAME OF NOMINEES | |
| CDF Representative | Moses Kanyoro | |
| CDF Representative | Mary Wanjiku Mwangi | |
| NGO Represenative | Sharon Evelyne Achieng | |
| Makadara Boxing Federation Representative | Wyclife Indalu | |
| Makadara Ex-Interantionals | Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee | |
| Religious Representative | Rose Agola | |
| Makadara Football Teams Representative | Jairo Willis | |
| Local Administration | Buxton Abwasi Mayabi | |
| Makadara Schools Sports Association Representative | Kennedy Simiyu Bunyasi |
After their appointments, the following were elected as office holders:
Kennedy Simiyu Bunyasi – Chairman
Sharon Achieng’ – Secretary
Jairo ‘Jaya’ Willis – Treasurer
Jacob ‘Ghost’ Mulee – Ass. Treasurer
Mr. Jaya said that he did not know what was happening until he went to the bank and found out that Mr. Munyi had colluded with Sharon Achieng’ and Kennedy Bunyasi, to withdraw Ksh. 1 million shillings which he claimed was for bursary. Mr. Jaya followed up the matter and Mr. Munyi was compelled to return the money.
From the bank statements that he received from Equity Bank, Buru Buru branch, Jaya discovered that close to Ksh. 3 million was missing. He noticed strange withdrawals were made without his knowledge and that money was being deposited using briefcase companies. Upon this revelation, he ordered the bank to freeze the account, to prevent further misappropriation.
Ever since the account was frozen, he says that money is collected, yet he does not know where that money goes. All he knows is that a lady whom he claims is affiliated to the former MP, Ben Mutura, is tasked with fee collection from every team that uses the pitch.
A training session at the ground goes for around Ksh. 5,000 with an average of 4 teams training daily. Jaya laments that it would be a great shame if they went back to the rocky pitch they were using before, for lack of enough funds to maintain the one that they have.
He says that he is just a figure head and that the real power rests with the area Member of Parliament.
“The former MP had his own people now the current one (Aladwa) is set to bring in new people. I do not know how the collections are done but the lady who does them was brought here by Ben Mutura.”
With the County Government expected to build more community stadiums, efforts will be needed to ensure that they are placed in the hands of people with integrity.
