Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa was on Thursday, March 28 afternoon arrested over claims of extortion targeting a governor.
Echesa was picked up from his house in Nairobi and taken to Muthaiga Police Station where he is being held.
According to his lawyer Danstan Omari, Echesa is in custody to help with investigations into claims of extortion and cybercrime bullying targeting Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa, as well as stage-managing an abduction.
“Hayo mambo yote hakuna ambapo tunaambiwa ni pesa ngapi alizozipata na kutoka kwa nani, hakuna mlalamishi katika hii kesi. Mawazo mengine ni kwamba yeye ndiye aliyeshtaki mara ya kwanza, lakini sasa yeye ndiye ameshtakiwa hapa,” Lawyer Omari told journalists.
The lawyer said that will appear in court tomorrow after police refused to release him on bond.
“Hata akama ni Easter, kesho tutafanya application kuenda kortini aweze kuachiliwa.”
At around 4 pm, Echesa was picked from Muthaiga Police Station to the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) along Kiambu Road for intense grilling.
Extorting Barasa
Echesa’s arrest comes few days after a man was charged before Kibera Law Court with extorting Governor Barasa a total of KSh240 million.
According to a charge sheet seen by TV47 Digital, William Simiyu Matere alias Elijah, on diverse dates between December 2023 and 1th March 2024, jointly with others not before the court conspired to commit a felony namely Demanding property with menaces and extorted from Fernandez Odinga Barasa a total sum of KSh240,000,000.
