Kenyan Police have been given five more days by a Kisumu Court to detain Ugandan Mugisha Ronald Mwine Fred alias Ronnie Santos pending completion of investigations after he was arrested on Sunday on allegations of match fixing.
Over the weekend, Western Stima Chairman Laban Jobita told Goal that he was approached by some of his players about an individual who had asked them to fix the game.
“So, I told my players to play along, but ensure they have recorded whatever was happening. I also told my team manager to ensure he has called me so that I follow up on the conversation in secrecy,” Jobita told Goal.
“I heard everything that was going on in the room and how he wanted to make a down-payment of Ksh70,000.
“He had promised to pay Ksh 600,000 once the deal goes through as planned. It is at this point that we stormed the hotel and the man was arrested,” he said. Mugisha was later remanded at Kisumu Central Police Station.
The Ugandan appeared before Senior Magistrate Wilfrida Kemunto on Monday morning where he was set to answer to corruption charges after allegedly trying to bribe Western Stima players to influence the result of their match against KCB.
The Directorate of Criminal Investigation (DCI) objected to the idea of releasing him on bond with the investigating officer saying he is a flight risk and had initially asked for a seven-day window to compete their investigations.
The investigating officer had sworn an affidavit stating the extent of the match fixing menace, noting it had potential to derail football development in the country and he needed time to dig into the roots of the vice.
According to the police report, Jobita had promised Mwine to go talk to the players and instead swung to the police who devised the plan to net the agent. On his arrest, it was also established that his immigration status in the country had expired.
He had promised to pay the players Sh550,000 if they lost the game and had also allegedly offered Sh10,000 during the meeting where he was arrested as ‘lunch’.
