NAIROBI, Kenya Mar 3 – Detectives have now established that the registration number plate of a Landcruiser V8 seized from the home of former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa was forged.
After analysis, detectives said the registration number KCW 289Q belongs to a Mazda and not the black V8. The Mazda is owned by a lady identified by police as Irene Mueni.
“We are looking for the lady. Not as a suspect but as a person of interest since her number plate has been found in another car,” the detective told Capital News on Tuesday, a day after Echesa was arrested following a day-long search at his Karen home where four other vehicles were taken away.
The detective said they are now keen to
establish if the V8 was registered when it was imported and if duty was paid
for it.
“He wanted to remove the number plates when
we indicated that we would tow all the vehicles to the Directorate of Criminal
Investigations headquarters. From there, we knew he was trying to conceal
something,” the officer said, preferring to remain anonymous.
Echesa was initially investigated over another
vehicle allegedly owned by a lady, who has filed a complaint at the Directorate
of Criminal Investigations headquarters.
But it’s not a fresh case since it was subject
of controversy in 2016, when President Uhuru Kenyatta nominated him to the
cabinet.
He was cleared of any wrongdoing.
Echesa is accused of fraudulently acquiring the vehicle, formerly owned by the lady’s late husband.
“It is political,” the troubled former Cs told journalists on Monday during the raid at his house in Karen.
His lawyer Brian Khaemba said he acquired the motor vehicle legally.
The vehicles taken to the DCI include two Toyota Landcruiser V8’s, a Volkswagen Passat, Mercedes Benz E class and a Ford Ranger.
Echesa is out after police questioned him at the DCI headquarters late Monday.
