Rashid Echesa in Court over Using Holy Man Babu Yusuf to Extort KSh 1.5b from Fernandes Barasa
Kenya Water Towers Agency Chairman Rashid Echesa has been charged with extorting KSh 1.5 billion from Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa.
Rashid Echesa charged with extortion and fraud
Echesa, who served as a Sports Cabinet Secretary under former president Uhuru Kenyatta, also faced charges of obtaining KSh 10 million from Barasa, pretending that he would delete adult photos and videos of the governor from a gadget.
According to court documents, Echesa told Barasa that he would help him erase the naked clips and photos of the governor from a gadget he confiscated from a Muslim holy man known as Babu Yusuf.
Echesa, who appeared before a Kibera court on Friday, April 19, faced five counts, including extortion, conspiracy to defraud, and obtaining money by false pretenses.
The first count indicates that Echesa and Joseph Lendrix Waswa, alias SSP Kiprop, conspired to defraud Barasa on December 18, 2024, in an unknown place, jointly with others, not before the court.
Who kidnapped Rashid Echesa?
They allegedly accused Barasa of kidnapping Echesa and demanded KSh 250 million to drop the false accusations against him.
In the second count, it is alleged that on March 18, 2024, in an unknown place, the duo, jointly with others not in court, conspired with intent to defraud, accused Barasa of kidnapping Echesa, and demanded KSh 1.5 billion from him.
They allegedly said they would drop the charges if the governor paid the ransom they demanded.
The third count indicates that between December 15, 2023, and March 18, 2024, Echesa and Waswa, together with others not in court, conspired to defraud the Kakamega county boss of KSh 200 million by pretending that they were able to give Barasa a gadget that they alleged contained inappropriate photos and video clips of the governor for disposal.
In the fourth count, the prosecution alleged that Echesa, on December 31, 2023, at the Sagret Hotel, with intent to defraud, obtained from Fernandes Barasa KSh 10 million by falsely pretending that he was in a position to delete some inappropriate photos and video clips of the governor found in a gadget confiscated from a Muslim holy man, Babu Yusuf Milale.
Kenyan law about extortion
The former CS and Waswa also faced a fifth count of attempting to extort by threats contrary to Section 300(1)(B) of the Penal Code.
The particulars of the offense are that on diverse dates between March 18, 2024, and March 26, 2024, at an unknown place, with the intent to extort from Barasa a sum of KSh 1.5 billion, the accused persons threatened the governor that he would be accused of a felony, to wit the kidnapping of one Rashid Echesa, if their demands were not met.
Echesa denied all five charges before Kibera Senior Principal Magistrate Margret Maroro.
Waswa, a co-accused in the charge sheet, did not take a plea after his lawyer told the court that he was unwell and admitted to the Nairobi Hospital.
His lawyer asked for seven days to allow him to recuperate and then take a plea.
Who is Lendrix Joseph Waswa?
According to the charge sheet presented in court, the prosecution accused him of alleged cyber harassment, where he reportedly sent a WhatsApp message to Barasa threatening to circulate naked photos of the governor to WhatsApp groups.
The charge sheet read, “On March 19, 2024, at 1356 hrs, at an unknown place using WhatsApp account number+2454xxxxxx under a mobile registration name AL Yusuf, you sent a WhatsApp message, “Bure by saa inne, I will have circulated all your naked photos kwa hizo WhatsApp groups? to Fernandes Barasa of WhatsApp account number 254xxxxxxxx information you knew would detrimentally affect him.
The other separate charge against Waswa alias Kiprop is that of cyberbullying.
The charge stated that on the same date, Waswa, through a mobile number registered in the name of Al Yusuf, sent the following message:
“Trust me; I will circulate other photos of you and Mama that you have never seen, which are in the gadget on the media, plus the naked ones, bro hutafurahi,” to Fernandes Barasa of WhatsApp number +254xxxxxx information you knew would detrimentally affect him.
However, he did not take a plea, and the court freed Echesa on a bond of KSh 500,000.
Danstan Omari withdraws from Rashid Echesa’s case
The Director of Public Prosecutions asked the investigating officer to peruse the medical documents produced by Waswa’s lawyer to ascertain their authenticity.
The court ordered that the documents be presented on Monday, April 25.
On Monday, April 15, lawyers Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombeta abruptly withdrew from representing Echesa.
The two who firmly stood with Echesa when he was arrested over self-abduction and extortion allegations during the Easter period wrote a letter to the Director of Criminal Investigations (DCI) stating they were no longer acting for him.
Rashid Echesa in Court over Using Holy Man Babu Yusuf to Extort KSh 1.5b from Fernandes Barasa
