Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa was on Thursday, February 13 arrested by detectives and taken to DCI headquarters in Kiambu for questioning.
It’s not yet clear why the former Sports CS was arrested although he has been a big government critic in recent months since he was kicked out of the Cabinet for poor leadership.
The less educated trouble maker was also used to blasting former Prime Minister Raila Odinga in a show of might to the extent of even belittling the Special AU Envoy as little person.
Echesa was kicked out of the sports docket in March 2019 by president Uhuru Kenyatta and was replaced by Amina Mohammed who was moved from the Education ministry.
His dismissal came months after he dared Raila, his former boss at Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), to fire him if he was the appointing authority as he defended his new ally, Deputy president William Ruto.
Before his sacking, the minister was accused of poorly running the ministry and politicking contrary to president Kenyatta’s directive that cabinet ministers stay clear of politics and instead focus on service delivery.
He also failed to read the new political tides in the country by frequently attacking Uhuru’s new partner, Raila, after the famous 2018 handshake.
His continued and unwarranted attacks on Raila and the Handshake put him on the spot and his dismissal didn’t come as a surprise to many.
He was also accused of using some rogue journalists to tarnish the name of Kakamega Senator Cleophas Malala whom he had fallen out with.
The journalists photoshopped Malala in nude photos and after their arrest, they admitted that they had been directed to do so by the then sports CS for as little pay as KSh 5,000.
Before that, the two had faced-off in Kakamega where a couple of people were injured and vehicles were damaged when their supporters clashed. All this came because of 2022 politics, as the race to succeed Governor Wycliffe Oparanya took shape.
He was also in the detectives’ radar with accusations of money laundering, corruption and human trafficking levelled against him. With all this, his fall from grace back to grass was bound to happen soon or later.
Everything went south for Echesa ever since he said this. 💀 pic.twitter.com/a7A1CvtLWI
— Limo. (@Limo_alan) February 13, 2020