Where rain started beating Rashid Echesa

Sacked: Sports CS Rashid Echesa.

President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday morning fired Rashid Echesa from the Sports docket.

In the announcement, Uhuru also transferred CS Amina Mohamed from Education to the Sports Culture and Heritage ministry.

The firing of Rashid Echesa was hardly surprising given his controversies.

One year after his appointment, the former Orange Democratic Movement youth leader was accused of failure to utilize sports resources appropriately.

The National Sports Fund was established under the Sports Act 2013 to finance Kenyan sports and federations, especially when preparing for international competitions.

National teams had become beggars whenever they were preparing for competitive events.

The worst case was the Kenya national amputee's football team, which almost missed their opportunity to represent the country at the World Cup for lack of funds.

Kenya National Amputees football team wear Team Sonko jerseys at the Mexico World Cup [Courtesy]

They would later don Sonko-branded jerseys, having failed to secure national jerseys.  Mike Sonko is the flamboyant Nairobi governor. 

In a previous interview with our sister publication The Nairobian, Echesa told off detractors on the sports fund, advising federations to seek other avenues to raise money.

"We don't have their budget (budget for sports federations). That's why we're pushing for the National Sports Fund to become operational so that we can easily fund the federations. But the federations must also not just bank on the government; watafute corporate companies ziwasaidie pia," he advised.

"The sports fund will not be disbanded. We're very serious and keen on ensuring that the kitty becomes operational," he insisted.

Amputee team spends the night at Ministry boardroom on November 8, 2018

But towards the end of the year (2018), there was a debate about whether the fund should remain in his docket or move to the Treasury. Echesa, who is otherwise outspoken, has remained mum on this.

Other matters the outgoing CS did not handle to the satisfaction of the public include the federation politics.

For instance, the Sports ministry is not expected to interfere in the operations of federations and other sports management bodies.

But when things seem to be getting out of hand, Echesa could step in to restore order, even if that attracts sanctions by respective international federations.

It is also the mandate of the ministry, through Registrar of Sports, to ensure that all federations and clubs operate within the law.

In 2018, Cricket Kenya was hit by wrangles over leadership positions, with the matter ending up in court. In an application filed in September, David Obuya, Tariq Iqbai, Kennedy Otieno and Edward Odumbe among others, cited among other things, the need to register the federation in line with the Sports Act 2013.

This exposed the ministry, in the sense that it has not been able to align all sports associations and federations with the law, meaning that some were operating illegally.

The Boxing Association of Kenya (BAK) was another den of wrangles. Two factions emerged ahead of the upcoming elections and Echesa was accused of interference.

 Ex- Boxing Association of Kenya chairman John Kamata claimed that the CS has shown favouritism and weakened the federation.

"He has created a faction and is publicly endorsing it for the upcoming elections. He has interfered with our day-to-day operations, including our tournaments. This is very wrong. To me, I think he is the reason boxing never impressed in 2018, even at the 2018 Commonwealth Games," said Kameta .

He added that; "I've heard some people say he is a former boxer. That is a big lie. According to our records, Echesa has never been a boxer. If he really was once a boxer, he would have had the interest of the sport at heart."

 In 2018, the year Harambee Stars qualified for the Africa Cup of Nations finals, head coach Sebastien Migne had to go for months without his salary.

At some point, the French coach almost called it quits. It would have been a huge shame had he resigned for lack of payment after registering a historic achievement with the team. Why would Migne beg for his salary, that's the question many wanted CS Echesa to respond to.

Echesa's fight with Raila Odinga

Rashid Echesa is known not to shy away from political utterances

In October last year, the outgoing Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa came out guns blazing claiming that the Opposition leader Raila Odinga was engineering his removal from office.

This was after Alego Usonga MP Samuel Atandi reportedly started a brawl with the CS at Kisumu International Airport over the CS's comments linking Mr Odinga to his woes.

Days later, a video went viral, where Echesa alleged that Raila was unhappy with his appointment to the Cabinet.

 "The President appointed me because I am a child of the poor. He knew that by appointing me, I would uplift another poor kid. The President was not stupid to appoint me. He knew the country had professors but I was still appointed," Echesa said.

The agitated Cabinet Secretary pointed out that the new plot to oust him from office undermines the handshake between President Uhuru Kenyatta and the former Prime Minister.

He further added that Raila wanted to take advantage to intimidate him and other people in Government.

"President Uhuru told us to embrace the handshake and that is exactly what we are doing, but it's like somebody somewhere wants now to take advantage of us embracing the handshake to come and intimidate us in the cabinet," the CS claimed.

Echesa, who decamped to the Jubilee Party after ditching Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) , was nominated a Cabinet secretary, where questions arose over his credentials that reportedly indicated he is a class seven dropout.