A senior Kenyan government minister and his permanent secretary have been killed in a helicopter crash near Nairobi.
The Eurocopter AS350B3 Squirrel (5Y-CDT), operated by the Kenya Police Air Wing, came down in woodland on 10 June in the Ngong hills just south of Nairobi, also killing both pilots and two ministerial bodyguards.
The helicopter, which was less than a year old, had just taken off from Nairobi's Wilson general aviation airport at about 08:30 local time and was taking the two ministers to Oyugis for a church service when it crashed in the Kibiku forest, The wreckage suggests the aircraft impacted the ground hard, and a fierce fire took hold.
The two government officials killed were internal security minister George Saitoti and his aide Orwa Ojode. Saitoti was expected to stand in the presidential elections next year, and since in his current job he had been particularly aggressive in his pursuit of Al Shabab Somali Islamist militants, there has been some speculation that foul play may have been involved in the crash.
The Kenyan police, however, says there is "nothing to suggest that this is anything other than a very tragic accident".
Source: Flight International
