Sports CS Rashid Echesa Caught In Human Trafficking Drama

Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa has been thrown in the middle of a human trafficking investigation after eight Pakistani dancers were arrested at a club in Parklands. Defence lawyer Evans Ondieki told the court the ladies were in the country with full permission of the CS. Senior Principal Magistrate Kennedy Cheruiyotordered the girls, who had been flown into the country as cultural dancers, be kept in a safe house to enable police to establish whether they are victims of human trafficking. He expressed regret that police were stifling Echesa's order that allowed the girls to perform in Kenya up to January 18, 2019. Ondieki stated that each of the girls paid the Immigration Department Kshs 45,000 to be issued with the special passes. The magistrate directed them to appear in court on January 8, 2019 when the proprietor of Bella Bella Club, Safendra Kumar Sonwani, and his manager Mika Osichiro will be arraigned for prosecution of human trafficking. “On humanitarian grounds, I urge this court to release these girls as they have not bathed for the last one week, health rules require women to fresh up and bath as many times as they can afford,” Ondieki pleaded with the magistrate. The girls are in the custody of Nadeem Khan of Blue Heart, a nongovernmental organisation against Human trafficking, Violence, and Child Abuse, where only the defence lawyer and police can access them for interrogation. In November, detectives from the Directorate of Public Prosecutions on Friday evening rescued 90 foreigners after raiding various human trafficking dens in Nairobi. Acting on information from the public, the officers descended on a den at Mlango Kubwa area within Starehe Constituency. Of the 90 foreigners found, 86 were from Comoros, three Ugandans, and one Congolese national