NAIROBI — Kenya yesterday started three days of official mourning for Internal Secu­rity Minister George Saitoti who was killed in a helicop­ter crash together with his assistant minister and four others on Sunday.
“President Mwai Kibaki has declared three days of national mourning starting Monday 11th June 2012 following the tragic deaths of the Min­ister for Internal Security Prof George Saitoti and the Assistant Minister . . . Hon. Orwa Ojode . . .,” a statement from State House said.
There were no survivors in the Sunday morning accident that occurred in Ngong, a town on the outskirts of Nairobi.
The statement said Kenyan flags would fly at half mast in honour of the dead ministers, two body guards and two pilots.
The police helicopter, acquired just five months earlier, came down soon after take off from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport.
Witnesses at the scene told AFP that the aircraft “hovered up there and looked like it was turning back” before coming down.
Meanwhile, Eurocopter, the manufacturer of civil and military helicopters, said ysterday it has deployed experts to help in the probe into the crash of one of its aircraft that killed six people, including two Kenyan ministers.
“Eurocopter has mobilised a team of experts to assist and support the Kenyan authorities, which will conduct an investiga­tion into the acci­dent,” the company said in a statement.
The manufacturer, based at Marignane in the south of France, confirmed that the air­craft, an AS350 B3e, was built in 2011                 and delivered to the Kenya police last December.
“The helicopter had logged about 230 flight hours since new and was last serviced at the end of May 2012,” said the company, which is 100 percent owned by the European aeronautics and defence group EADS. — AFP.