Chief Justice Willy Mutunga yesterday assured Kenyans of a thorough probe into the fatal helicopter accident as Justice Kalpana Rawal-led team was sworn in.

The CJ said the team was up to the task as he urged them to be forthright in their conduct, maintain professionalism in their operations and be courageous in their work and findings.

The committee will probe the circumstances surrounding the copter crash on Sunday June 10 at Kibiku forest in Ngong. In the crash, Internal Security minister George Saitoti and his assistant Joshua Orwa Ojode died. The Ministers' two bodyguards and the pilots of the Eurocopter 5Y-CDT also died.

Mutunga told the team to be "alive to the strong underlying" public concerns on the crash and said they must address them directly and steadily without cowering or intimidation. "In its conduct and output, it must begin to restore public confidence in public inquiries not as instruments of managing immediate crises but as important arenas for the ventilation and discovery of the truth," he said. The team will be led by the Appellate Judge and the vice chairman is former Kenya Air Force Commander Major General (Rtd) Harold Tangai.