Echesa wants negotiations on extortion case

Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa and businessman Joseph Hendrix Waswa have filed an application to block a prayer by the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) to withdraw a Sh240 million extortion case pitting the two against Kakamega Governor Fernandes Barasa.

The DPP, in his application before Kibera Magistrate Stella Atambo, sought to withdraw the charges against Echesa and Waswa under Section 87(A) of the Criminal Procedure Code, meaning they could be charged afresh.

However, their lawyer, June Ashioya, in her application, wants the court to allow her clients to negotiate with the DPP and Barasa to have the case fully terminated under Section 204 of the CPC.

According to her, if the 14-day negotiations do not materialise, the criminal case should be allowed to proceed to a conclusion.

“If the negotiations fail within the said 14 days, the complainant will be compelled to provide financial statements that support the charge, as well as witness statements that directly link the applicant within a specified timeframe set by the court, so that the matter proceeds to a full hearing and is determined on merit,” the application filed under urgency reads in part.

According to Ashioya, the crux of the case is a claim of extortion of Sh200 million. She said the amount is huge and requires financial statements showing how the money was either wired, transferred or withdrawn.

She further said no such documents had been made available to her clients in support of the allegation.

“On March 26, when the matter came up for hearing, the matter could not proceed because the complainant was not in court, and the applicants had not been provided with witness statements, as well as financial statements supporting this charge, or any witness statements directly linking them to any of the charges they are facing before the court,” stated Ashioya.

She also said the investigating officer informed the court that he had on several occasions sought financial statements from the governor to support the charges, but to no avail.

The two were charged in 2024.

Ashioya said that to date, they have also not been supplied with witness statements on the matter.

“The applicant needs adequate time to prepare his defence against the charges levied against him, including securing witnesses, and this has been curtailed by the failure of the prosecution to provide any evidence, financial statements and/or witness statements directly linking the applicant to the charges levelled against him. Withdrawing the case under Section 87(A) will further prejudice the applicant as it will become more difficult for him to defend himself if the case continues to be delayed,” she added.

According to her, withdrawal of the criminal case without negotiations and the active participation of her clients would be unjust, as they are the ones on the dock.

She asserted that if the case is withdrawn under Section 204, it would bring the saga to an end, as it cannot be reinstated.

When Echesa and Waswa were charged, the DPP had sought to have the case consolidated with that against William Simiyu Matere, who had been charged separately before Magistrate Ann Mwangi following the saga.

However, the two opposed the application, arguing that the two cases were unrelated.

The magistrate agreed with them in her ruling dated November 20, 2025. She said that although the two cases were anchored on the same complainant, there was nothing else connecting them.

“A look at the charge sheets in Criminal E988/2024 and E731/2024 shows that, save for the existence of the same complainant in both matters, there is no other overlap or similarity in the two matters. The offences in both matters were allegedly committed on diverse dates in the course of totally different transactions. There seems to be no relationship between the charges in the two files. The State has not demonstrated that the witnesses in both matters are the same,” said Mwangi.

The case will be mentioned today.