Team faults supplier of Saitoti helicopter
Former Internal Security minister George Saitoti (right) and his assistant Orwa Ojodeh. The late assistant minister Orwa Ojode once said the tail of Al-Shabaab may be in Mogadishu, but the head is very much in Nairobi’s Eastleigh. Even those terrorists presumably crossing over from Gedo to Mandera cannot do so without intimate supportive local networks. FILE PHOTO |
What you need to know:
- The pilot in command, Capt Nancy Gituanja, had flown Prof Saitoti before and had also flown to Ndhiwa previously, says the report compiled by Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal.
The commission that investigated the air crash which killed Internal Security minister George Saitoti and his assistant Orwa Ojodeh criticised the supplier of the ill-fated helicopter.
The team said the South African company tampered with the aircraft before it was delivered for use by the Kenya Police Airwing.
In its report, tabled in Parliament last week, the commission says it “would like to bring forth a glaring irregularity committed by Eurocopter in that it installed a prototype monitoring device in the aircraft on December 4, 2011, after its acceptance was signed on pre-delivery inspection in November 2011 and did not disclose the fact to the aircraft user”.
The helicopter crashed at Kibiku in Ngong Forest barely 10 minutes into flight from Wilson Airport, Nairobi, on June 10, 2012, killing the minister and his assistant, their bodyguards and the crew. The aircraft had been bound for Ndhiwa.
The pilot in command, Capt Nancy Gituanja, had flown Prof Saitoti before and had also flown to Ndhiwa previously, says the report compiled by Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal.
Former president Mwai Kibaki set up the commission to allay public anxiety and to unearth the cause of the tragic accident.
Sensational allegations had preceded the formation of the commission, with some politicians claiming in Parliament that drug barons had killed Prof Saitoti.
The report says a member of the pre-shipment inspection team signed an acceptance certificate on November 30, 2011, and a certificate of conformity dated November 30, 2011, was issued without knowing that the aircraft had been tampered with.
“While in South Africa he was not aware that 11 parts had been removed and replaced with other parts on December 2, 2011, nor was he aware of the reasons for their removal,” says the report.
During the inquiry, the official said that had he been aware of the replacements, he would not have taken delivery of the aircraft, says the report.
