Ex-CS Rashid Echesa arraigned over Ksh.39B military equipment scam

Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa was on Monday arraigned at the Milimani Law Courts in Nairobi over the controversial Ksh.39 billion military equipment scam.

Appearing before Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot, Echesa was arraigned alongside three other suspects said to have been involved in the fake firearms deal, namely; Daniel Otieno Omondi alias General Juma, Clifford Okoth Onyango alias Paul, and Kennedy Oyoo Mboya.

The four faced 12 counts among them conspiracy to commit a felony, making a document without authority, obtaining money by false pretences, as well as impersonating a public service officer.

The court heard that Echesa and his co-accused, on October 21 last year, obtained Ksh.11.5 million from Kozlowski Stanley Bruno by falsely pretending that they were in a position to award him a contract for supply and delivery of military equipment to the Ministry of Defence.

The embattled ex-CS was also accused of falsely presenting himself to Kozlowski Stanley Bruno and Mamdough Mostafa Amer to be the deputy president’s Personal Assistant at Harambee House Annex on February 13, 2020.

Daniel Otieno, on the other hand, allegedly impersonated General Juma from the Kenya Defence Forces and pretended to be in a position to award the two foreigners a tender for supply, delivery, installation, commissioning and maintenance of integrated and security surveillance system.

The court further heard that the four accused attempted to obtain a total of Ksh.39,544,200,000 from Kozlowski Stanley Bruno by falsely pretending that they would award him a tender by the State Department to supply military equipment.