Plan to buy new police choppers blocked as tenders cancelled

Police have cancelled a tender for the purchase of five helicopters and the refurbishing of three others.

Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinett had placed an international tender notice in the local dailies for the supply and delivery of a troop carrier helicopter and four utility helicopters. However, the tender was cancelled indefinitely yesterday.

Another tender was for the overhaul of the grounded MI-17 helicopters. The Airwing Unit has four MI-17 helicopters —5YSTA, 5YSFA, 5YEDM, and 5YUKW — but none of them is serviceable.

The 5Y-UKW was grounded after it was involved in an accident in Kapsabet where the then Internal Security Assistant Minister Orwa Ojode and the Commissioner of Police at the time, Maj-Gen Hussein Ali, escaped unhurt. Mr Ojode and his boss, Prof George Saitoti, died in a plane crash in 2012.

The cancellation comes at a time when investigations into allegations of corruption in the procurement of aircraft and parts as well as their misuse is being conducted. Police, however, have denied that the cancellation was due to the ongoing scrutiny.

The additional aircraft were to be used in providing air support to ground forces, border patrols, rapid response, and anti-terrorism flights.

On Tuesday, Interior Cabinet Secretary Joseph Nkaissery defended the Airwing Commandant Rogers Mbithi who was accused of allowing his daughter-in-law and children to use the aircraft from Mombasa to Nairobi on April 2.

“The law is clear that he can authorise a pilot to carry his relative and any other civilian. What is his crime?” he said.

Police will have to rely on aircraft from other units. Two years ago, another tender for the overhaul of the choppers was presented before the Technical Evaluation Committee. It was then forwarded to the Ministerial Tender Committee.