Helicopter that killed Saitoti ‘lacked spares’
Lady Justice Kalpana Rawal. Photo/FILE
The ill-fated helicopter that claimed the lives of Internal Security minister George Saitoti, his assistant Orwa Ojodeh and four police officers was shipped into the country without spares and maintenance tools, a commission of inquiry investigating the air crash heard on Wednesday.
A witness told the Judge Kalpana Rawal-led inquest that there was no specification of where the machine would be maintained and serviced locally. Read (Saitoti probe told of chopper fears)
Mr Simon Njoroge Mugo, a member of the technical evaluation team that gave the plane a clean bill of health before it was bought, concurred with lawyers representing the victims’ families that “critical information” was omitted in the documents the police asked him to analyse.
The missing details, according to lawyers Fredrick Ngatia and Mayiani Sankole, may have compromised international aviation safety standards.
However, lawyers Evans Monari, for the Police Department, and Kennedy Ogeto, for the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, objected to their line of argument, saying the aircraft would have been serviced locally by Everett Aviation— a company based at Wilson Airport, Nairobi.
Mr Mugo, who is an engineer, said a consideration of spares and maintenance tools was crucial when buying an aircraft.
He said he was aware the Eurocopter would not be serviced locally, at the time.
The witness confirmed that “a minimum equipment list”, which is a mandatory component of the tendering, was also missing among the documents he perused for the bidding of the aircraft.
He said he considered a “predetermined list of items” and had no capacity to question what was missing.
Another standard measure that was ignored in the acquisition, the engineer said, was a record of safety and accidents pertaining to the bidder’s product.
“I never saw it, it was not part of the specifications I was given to peruse,” he said.
He said the purpose of the aircraft was not disclosed to him, and that he was not aware that the aircraft would be used to carry VIPs. The inquest continues on Thursday at the KICC.
