In summary
- Aden Marwa was captured in a BBC documentary allegedly receiving a Ksh 60000 bribe ‘to manipulate matches’.
- The expose came just days before he was to travel to Russia for the 2018 FIFA World Cup where he would be an assistant referee. Reports suggest he would earn a clean Ksh 2.5 million at the world’s biggest football tournament.
- Marwa maintains his innocence and tried to explain the issue with Kenyan officials but he was condemned like a serial thief: “Wewe kwenda huko; umetuaibisha.”
Aden Marwa went into history books as the first Kenyan football match official to be involved in any FIFA competition.
As a lineman (now referred to as assistant referee) Marwa was involved in the 2011 U17 World Cup, the 2012 and 2013 African Cup of Nations, the 2016 FIFA Club World Cup and was a reserve official in the 2014 FIFA World Cup.
But the teacher of Chemistry saw his solid career sublime just days to the 2018 FIFA World Cup that was held in Russia. He was already done with adequate preparations and had even been granted a leave by the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC).
BBC Documentary: Betraying The Game
A BBC investigative documentary named Betraying The Game captured Marwa receiving what was reported to be a US$600 bribe in order to manipulate matches. The incident is alleged to have happened in Morocco during the 2018 African Nations Championship (CHAN).
That is how his career limped to its deathbed. Marwa was heavily condemned and was struck off the list of the 2018 FIFA World Cup officials. African football governing body, CAF handed him a life ban.
And one of Kenya’s mainstream media houses narrated the story with a heavily worded diction: ” The scourge of corruption that is plaguing the country has struck its ugly head in sports.”
Marwa’s side of the story
It has taken five years for the Migori County based official to talk about the allegations. According to Marwa, the investigative journalist behind the expose fixed him.
Marwa says the Ghanaian journalist Anas Aremeyaw met him at a hotel and handed him the cash in a friendly manner, telling him to ‘buy something for his family’ upon jetting back home.
“It was at the end of our meeting that he offered me the money, and it was not a bribe, the conversation was something like, ‘why don’t you take this money at least you buy something for your family when you go back home,” he told Mozzart Sport.
He also revealed how the allegations left him in the doldrums. He tried cleaning his reputation by appealing to the Football Kenya Federation but one of the officials told him off.
“When I contacted them for help, they told me ‘wewe kwenda huko, umetuaibisha. I have lived with pain and learnt to accept it,” Aden Marwa adds.
Controversial journalist practises investigative terrorism
The man behind the expose is however a controversial journalist who has recently been implicated in blackmail by a Ghanaian court.
In a defamation suit against a Member of Parliament Mr. Kennedy Agyapong, the judge dismissed Anas Aremeyaw by claiming he practises investigative terrorism rather than investigative journalism.
“I hold that the plaintiff is a blackmailer who uses blackmail to extort money from his opponents and people he does not like”
“What the plaintiff is doing is not investigative journalism but investigative terrorism,” ruled Justice Eric Baah.
