Ex-Sports CS Rashid Echesa to spend another night in police cells

Former Sports CS Rashid Echesa in Court.

Former Sports CS Rashid Echesa has been detained at Gigiri police station for one more day.

Echesa appeared before a Kiambu court on Monday for slapping an IEBC official during voting at the by-election in Matungu, Kakamega County.

Prosecution had requested the court to detain Echesa for seven days to allow for further investigations into the case.

“Don’t allow police to waste public resources returning to Mumias for further investigations when they already wasted public resources bringing Echesa to Nairobi,” said Echesa’s lawyer, urging the court to reject the prosecution’s request.

The ex-CS told the court that his arrest was politically motivated.

Echesa said that his arrest was politically motivated.

Echesa was captured on camera in an altercation with an IEBC official at Bulonga Primary School polling station in Matungu on March 4.

He claimed that a United Democratic Alliance (UDA) agent had been evicted from the polling station in unclear circumstances by the security team under the instruction of a presiding officer.

He was arrested by police in Kakamega on Friday, March 5.  

Western Regional Police Commander Peris Kimani said police managed to successfully track Echesa via his phone within Mumias town just some minutes to 6.00PM.

This is after he defied an earlier directive by the Inspector General of Police Hillary Mutyambai to surrender by 1.00PM Friday.