Former Sports Cabinet Secretary (CS) Rashid Echesa was on Saturday, March 30, morning rushed to a hospital in Nairobi in critical condition.
According to the lawyer Danstan Omari who spoke to Kenyans.co.ke, the former CS was bleeding profusely from a surgery wound operated on a week before his arrest.
Omari further added that Echesa was meant to attend a doctor’s appointment on Friday, for a check-up and aid on the surgery wound, which was yet to heal. The police however refused to release him.
“We went with a letter from Karen hospital where he had undergone surgery and was to be brought here for review and the police could not release him on bail,” he noted.
“Today in the morning it became so bad, that he had to be rushed here. He was bleeding profusely from the wound.”
Echesa is currently receiving treatment, awaiting a report from the doctor’s assessment to determine his condition, which might call for re-admission at the hospital.
“We are waiting to hear what the doctor says, then we will be able to know if he can be released on cash bail or re-admitted, whatever the doctor’s prescription will be,” Omari added.
Kakamega Senator Boni Khalwale was among those advocating for Echesa's release on Friday. The legislator spent the afternoon at the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) headquarters along Kiambu Road, where he demanded the former CS be released to him.
"I am the Kakamega Senator and the Government Majority whip. I come here on the capacity given to me by Kakamega County to ask the National Government to release Rashid to me," Khalwale stated on Friday.
“I have spent the whole of this afternoon at DCI Headquarters in Nairobi and later at the Muthaiga Police Station. I was to take him to hospital. The former CS is visibly unwell,” Khalwale noted.
Echesa was arrested on Thursday, March 28, following claims of his involvement in a gang extorting and blackmailing Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa.
The arrest was made after a man suspected to be Echesa's handler was taken to court for allegedly extorting Ksh240 million from the Kakamega governor. He was charged with two counts of conspiracy to commit a felony and demanding property with force.
