Saitoti probe: Police to sue firm
What you need to know:
- Through lawyer Evans Monari, the police demanded to know when the company will supply the helicopter or be ready to refund the Sh215 million paid for the ill-fated aircraft.
- Justice Kaplana Rawal leading the commission of inquiry, said parties were free to take up whichever action they deemed right after the commission makes its findings to the appointing authority.
- The evidence brought before the commission was that the bid documents were at variance with the product that was finally delivered in Nairobi.
The police will push a South African company to supply the helicopter it had originally ordered for the airwing unit after it emerged that the supplier substituted the model that crashed in June killing two ministers.
They promised a protracted legal battle with Eurocopter for varying the specifications of the original tender. (READ: Crash probe told of ‘flawed’ tender)
Through lawyer Evans Monari, the police demanded to know when the company will supply the helicopter or be ready to refund the Sh215 million paid for the ill-fated aircraft.
“When will you supply the helicopter we ordered?” lawyer Monari asked Eurocopter chief executive Fabrice Cagnat on Thursday during a public inquiry into the June 10 accident.
Internal Security Minister George Saitoti, his deputy Orwa Ojodeh, their bodyguards and two police pilots died in the crash.
“Be ready to pay back the money you took from us to supply the helicopter. I promise you a long court battle after the proceedings of this commission,” Mr Monari said in cross examination.
"Mr Cagnat had maintained that the helicopter the company delivered was tailor-made to suit the specifications the police wanted, claiming that adjustments to the aircraft were sanctioned by the airwing commandant.
Justice Kaplana Rawal leading the commission of inquiry, said parties were free to take up whichever action they deemed right after the commission makes its findings to the appointing authority.
The evidence brought before the commission was that the bid documents were at variance with the product that was finally delivered in Nairobi.
But Mr Cagnat could not ascertain whether there was a paper-trail documenting the communication concerning the variation in the original tender.
He said the company did not write to the police in regard to the alterations they had made to the aircraft. “I know there were certain changes, which were validated and okayed by the police,” the chief executive said.
Earlier the commission heard that the aircraft should have remained grounded because of a major defect detected two days before the crash.
Mr Cagnat said the company sent a technician who diagnosed the problem and gave the aircraft the green light to fly. Today a metallurgical expert, who examined the chopper’s gear box that was salvaged from the wreckage, will testify.
