Kenneth Ogosia
17 June 2008
Nairobi — National Assembly Speaker Kenneth Marende on Monday said Kenya Civil Aviation Authority bosses should be fired for alleged incompetence.
He said investigations should be carried out to establish the safety of Kenya's air space because the accident in which two ministers died was an indicator that something was not right.
He said the Government could not sit and watch people die through accidents that could be avoided.
Complacency
"The authority should be overhauled and some people dispensed with because of the complacency Kenyans have witnessed. Freak accidents are fairy tales devoid of professionalism, for all intents and purposes," Mr Marende said.
The Speaker was addressing mourners at the home of Home Affairs assistant minister Lorna Laboso who, with Roads minister Kipkalya Kones, died in last Tuesday's plane crash.
He said complacency in the industry was hurting the confidence Kenyans attached to air services and a new approach was needed to reform the sector.
The Speaker said Kenyan MPs had fallen victim to air accidents before. He said in 2003, MPs attending a home-coming party for former vice-president Moody Awori crashed in Busia. And, in 2006, a Kenya Airforce plane crashed in Marsabit, killing assistant minister Mirugi Kariuki and a group of other MPs.
The Speaker said that the country could not afford to lose leaders through carelessness. He concurred with aviation experts and some private aircraft owners who are demanding that a register of airworthy aircraft be published by Kenya Civil Aviation Authority so that blame can easily be apportioned in case of accidents.
The management of the East African Safari Air Express, which sent its messages of condolences to the families of the ministers, asked for professional management of airlines.
Managing director Captain Adam Ogden said: "The airspace is not a road or a railway line. This is the most delicate yet the safest means of transport."
Funeral costs
He said a register of competent and airworthy planes would guide travellers.
Mr Marende, who earlier visited the Kones' home in Nairobi, said all funeral costs would be met by the National Assembly.
He also gave each of the bereaved families Sh100,000.
Mr Marende also said that each of the families would be paid Sh10 million from the insurance accident cover.
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An air accident that conveniently reduces the possible opposition. A senior medical doctor of dpolitical afiliation who prescribes or missprescribes medication to those of an unwanted ethnic group in order to cleanse the political playing field and this in an institution of higher learning. A senior justice public official who publicly endorses an individual currently under investigation by the anticorruption body. Medical practitioners who reject the Hypocratic oath to more easily digress without blame.