Former Sports Cabinet Secretary Rashid Echesa was on Saturday rushed to Karen Hospital in critical condition.

Echesa who was being detained at Muthaiga Police Station since Thursday was taken to hospital due to a reported deterioration in his pneumonia and high cholesterol levels.

According to his lawyers Danstan Omari and Cliff Ombeta, Echesa’s condition could have led to further health complications had it not addressed in time.

“My client’s health deteriorated hence his admission to the hospital,” Omari told the media.

Echesa had been held at Muthaiga police cells since Thursday night, pending arraignment on Tuesday over allegations of extortion and staged abduction.

Police said they will guard him at the hospital ahead of his arraignment.

Echesa through his lawyers had asked the police to release him from custody to allow him seek medical attention.

His lawyers are also want him to be granted cash bail to “continue with his journey towards full recovery.”

Echesa who is also the chairperson of the Kenya Water Towers Agency, was arrested and initially taken to Muthaiga Police Station.

According to Danstan Omari, his continued detention would have made his health deteriorate adding that any form of justice related to his arrest cannot possibly take precedence over his health.

Echesa was arrested over claims of extorting money from Kakamega County Governor Fernandes Barasa.

Prior to his arrest, videos of him pleading for mercy after allegedly being abducted had gone viral.

In the videos, Echesa is heard asking his alleged abductors to tell governor Barasa to forgive him. He is also heard begging his alleged abductors not to kill him as his children would suffer.

However, a section of Kenyans have argued that the abduction seems to have been stage-managed as a part of ways to extort governor Fernandes Barasa.

Another video of Echesa conversing with an unknown man while handcuffed in a car boot also went viral.

This is not a first controversy to hit the former sports CS, who has previously been accused of photoshopping former Kakamega senator Cleophas Malala in what looks to have been the same extortion ring.