Ex-Sports CS Rashid Echesa Arrested, To Spend Easter Behind Bars
Echesa was arrested on Thursday, March 28 for his alleged role in an extortion ring targeting Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa.
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Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa has been arrested and will spend the entire Easter weekend beginning Friday, March 29 to Monday, April 1 behind bars.
Echesa was arrested on Thursday, March 28 for his alleged role in an extortion ring targeting Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa.
Reports indicated that he was picked up by police officers attached to Muthaiga Police Station from his house in the afternoon and taken to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) Kiambu Road for questioning. The officers claimed that he had been avoiding a police trail.
According to Echesa's lawyers, Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombeta, their client, who is also the chairperson of the Kenya Water Towers Agency, was arrested and initially taken to Muthaiga Police Station over charges of extortion and stage-managing an abduction.
Former Sports Cabinet Secretary, Rashid Echesa. /FILE
They claimed that the arrest was a political witch hunt by his detractors.
"We have not been told the amount that was involved in these allegations. There is no complainant and if you look at the circumstances, Echesa was the initial person to file a formal complaint," Omari stated.
"Even though it is Easter, we will file an application in court since it's a matter of life and death to ensure he is released."
The arrest comes barely a week after a man was charged before a Kibera court with extorting Ksh240 million from Governor Barasa.
The suspect was presented before Kibera Senior Principal magistrate Ann Mwangi but denied the two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony.
The charge sheet stated that the accused, jointly with others not before court, conspired to commit a felony, an offence they allegedly committed on diverse dates between December 2023 and March 18, 2024.
The court was informed that the accused person and his accomplices demanded with menaces and extorted from Barasa a sum of Ksh240 million.
Nonetheless, the suspect was freed after depositing a bond of Ksh2 million with a surety of the same amount.
Echesa is currently battling a Ksh39 million fake arms deal case before a Nairobi court and has twice failed to appear before the trial magistrate allegedly because he has been unwell.
The former CS was acquitted in December 2021 after the trial court ruled that the prosecution had failed to prove the charges against him and others, only for the High Court to overturn the decision.
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