Court Orders DCI To Release Range Rover, Firearms Confiscated From Ex-CS Echesa

The Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) has been ordered by a Nairobi Court to return two pistols and a Range Rover vehicle that were confiscated from former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa in February this year.

Echesa had last month moved to court demanding the release of his vehicle arguing that the use of public transport was exposing him to the novel Coronavirus.

Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyot on Thursday allowed the request further directing the DCI to surrender his firearms – a Beretta 92 and a Ceska pistol.

While delivering the ruling, the magistrate noted that confiscation of the firearm is in contravention of a ruling delivered by the High Court and that the firearms are not related with the charges he is facing.

“I find that and hold that the applicant is entitled to possess the firearm and to also enjoy his motor vehicle,” ruled the Magistrate.

Read: Ex-CS Echesa Accuses DP Ruto Of Abandoning Allies In Hour Of Need

Echesa, who is facing criminal charges, had also filed an application at the court on March 11 seeking orders to compel the DCI to release his motor vehicle on grounds that he had suffered embarrassment and loss of dignity since his vehicles were impounded by DCI detectives.

“The respondents’ continued confiscation of the vehicle has subjected me to embarrassment and loss of dignity because I am now forced to use public transport, and even sometimes travel on foot,” he said in his application.

The vehicle that the court ordered be released was part of five vehicles that were seized at Echesa’s home on March 2 after a complaint filed by a Kisumu resident, Esther Kabura who accused the former minister of stealing her late husband’s high-end vehicles.

Read Also: Echesa Wants Car Released For Fear Of Contracting Coronavirus While Using Public Transport

They were; a Toyota Land Cruiser V8, Passat, Mercedes Benz E-Class, Ford and a Lexus without number plates.

According to her, the embattled ex-CS took possession of her husband’s vehicles; a Land Cruiser VX, a new Volkswagen Passat and a Mark X, in 2016.

Echesa is also a prime suspect in the Ksh39 billion firearms deal that was allegedly brokered at the Deputy President William Ruto’s Harambee Annex House office.

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