President Uhuru Kenyatta on Friday morning fired Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa.

Echesa has since been replaced by Amina Mohammed, who has been the Education minister in Uhuru’s latest cabinet reshuffle.

“In accordance with Article 152(5) of the Constitution, as read together with Article 152(1)(d) of the Constitution, the appointment of Mr. Rashid Echesa Mohamed, as a Cabinet Secretary has been vacated,” read the Executive Order.

Echesa served as Cabinet Secretary for Sports and Heritage for one year, a month and two days, having been appointed by President Uhuru Kenyatta on January 26, last year.

The little-known Echesa replaced Hassan Wario, who had been appointed Ambassador for Kenya in Austria as Ambassador Kirimi Kaberia retained his position as Principal Secretary.

Wario, who left after five years in charge of the Sports portfolio with scandals , was recalled following the 2016 Rio Olympic scandal.

Echesa, a former Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) youth leader in Kakamega, has not had it smooth – with critics questioning his academic credentials during his vetting.

Detailed emerged that Achesa was a class seven drop-out, and there were plans to exclude him from the team that was interviewed upon appointment.

In the changes, the president also fired Fatuma Hirsi as the Permanent Secretary for the Broadcasting and Telecommunications in the ICT Ministry.

“In accordance with Article 155 of the Constitution, the appointment of Mrs Fatuma Hirsi, as a Principal Secretary has been vacated,” read a statement.

Echesa has, in the past, been involved in various scandals including a human trafficking ring where he was accused of assisting their access into the country.

The government, however, deported the eight Pakistani women in mid January 2019 after they were accosted by police at a social club in Parklands and arraigned in court.

Before that, the CS was involved in yet another embarrassing scandal with Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala after revelations that the CS allegedly tried to frame the latter with fake nude photographs.

He reportedly paid three journalists to photoshop Malala’s image to portray him in a compromising situation with a non-existent woman.

The axe comes just hours after Kenyans.co.ke reported that CS Echesa had admitted to being a personal friend to a suspect charged with impersonating Uhuru while defrauding a businessman of Kshs 10 million. He, however, denied being a business partner to the suspect, Joseph Waswa.

Sources: Daily Nation and Kenyans.co.ke