NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 10 — Today marks 10 years since former Internal Security Minister Professor George Saitoti and his assistant, Orwa Ojode, together with four police officers lost their lives when the helicopter they were traveling in crashed at Ngong’s Kibiku area under unclear circumstances.
However, to date, the mystery surrounding the deaths is far from being unlocked as the final report of the inquiry led by Justice Kalpana Rawal triggered more questions than answers.
The inquiry was told that pilots flying the aircraft may have been incapacitated three minutes to the crash since there were no pilot inputs during the duration of the flight.
Based on the final report however, the families of Saitoti and five other victims might never get to know what transpired in the cockpit on June 10, 2012.
The Rawal-led panel, in its report released in 2013, blamed French firm Eurocopter for the crash.
Justice Rawal said the helicopter manufacturer had installed a test version of a device that should raise an alarm in the event of an engine malfunction, but without the knowledge or approval of the Kenya Police when it received the helicopter.
She said the prototype Vehicle Engine Monitoring Display (VEMD) was installed on December 4, 2011, after the helicopter’s operational certificate had been issued.
“Eurocopter committed a glaring irregularity. Any irregularities were to be shown on that VEMD but instead of the real one, a prototype was installed before the aircraft came to us and after our authorities had given the pre inspection certificate,” she explained.
“And according to the witnesses before us, the commandant was not informed of this installation and it was a serious fault,” she maintained.
The commission, which listened to 66 witnesses, also observed that the helicopter was not being maintained by its manufacturers and was purchased before its tendering process was complete.
Rawal urged the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) to take up the matter of the prototype arguing that it should be investigated further.
“KCAA should send a protest note to the European Aviation Safety Authority on the basis that Eurocopter knowingly allowed for use of a prototype part on an operational aircraft,” she said.
The commission, which also established the probable cause of the crash as loss of aircraft control in poor visibility, added that it was unable to determine the exact cause of death of the six Kenyans because of poor post-mortem assessment.
Rawal called for the urgent establishment of a National Forensic Teaching and Research facility at the time to help handle such issues.
“An opportunity was lost to the commission to determine whether the cause of death was due to carbon monoxide poisoning, traumatic injuries, fire injuries, or a combination of any of these,” she said.
The Kenya Police Air Wing was also faulted with the commission accusing it of having shortcomings in the fields of training, safety management and continued air worthiness checks.
“This could be the reason for the underhand functions of the wing,” argued Rawal.
During the inquiry, Saitoti’s family has alleged interference in investigations into the helicopter crash.
In June 2012, the family’s lawyer Fred Ngatia said there appeared to have been attempts to interference in the investigation from unknown quarters because of what he termed as “unnecessary bureaucracies.”
“I don’t understand why it should take this long to carry out mapping and take away the debris from here,” he protested.
“It appears there are instructions from somewhere to obstruct us from knowing the truth.”
He expressed fears that the debris which consists of material evidence at the site may end up deteriorating, having been left at the scene for long.
“I am seeking a formal session with the team to raise these critical issues, we need to move forward,” he said, sharply differing with investigators and assessors at the crash site in Ngong where the plane debris still lay.
