KENYA: KENYAN LABOUR MINISTER AHMAD MOHAMED KHALIF AND TWO PILOTS ARE KILLED AFTER THEIR PLANE HITS AN ELECTRIC PYLON SHORTLY AFTER TAKE-OFF

Record ID: 172726

  • Title: KENYA: KENYAN LABOUR MINISTER AHMAD MOHAMED KHALIF AND TWO PILOTS ARE KILLED AFTER THEIR PLANE HITS AN ELECTRIC PYLON SHORTLY AFTER TAKE-OFF
  • Date: 24th January 2003
  • Summary: (U7) NAIROBI, KENYA (JANUARY 24, 2003) (REUTERS ACCESS ALL) 1. MV: PRESS CONFERENCE IN PROGRESS 0.04 2. SCU: (SOUNDBITE)(English) MINISTER OF STATE FOR PROVINCIAL ADMINISTRATION AND NATIONAL SECURITY, CHRISTOPHER MURUNGARU SAYING: "The plane hit a pothole just before take-off, lost control, hit an electric pole and crushed into a house." 0.19
  • Embargoed: 8th February 2003 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: NAIROBI, KENYA
  • Country: Kenya
  • Reuters ID: LVAE9YB0WQE4YCGR9KK3YFPSFFRH
  • Story Text: Kenya's labour minister and two pilots were killed
    when a small jet carrying several ministers from an election
    victory party crashed into a pylon after takeoff on Friday,
    the government said.


    Several other ministers from Kenya's new government
    were injured when the plane struck a pothole, careered into
    the pylon then plunged into a house near the airport in the
    western town of Busia, officials said on Friday (January 24).

    The ministers were heading back to Nairobi from
    celebrations to mark their landmark victory in December 27
    polls that ended 24 years of rule by former President Daniel
    arap Moi.

    "A chartered plane with 10 passengers and two pilots
    crashed at the Busia airport this evening, killing the labour
    and manpower minister, honourable Ahmad Khalif, and both
    pilots," Security Minister Christopher Murungaru told a news
    conference in the Kenyan capital Nairobi.

    "The plane hit a pothole just before take-off, lost
    control, hit an electric pole, and it crashed into a house,"
    he said.

    Labour Minister Ahmad Mohamed Khalif died at a hospital in
    western Kenya, a doctor said.

    Murungaru said preliminary reports showed six people on
    the plane were injured, including Tourism Minister Raphael
    Tuju, who had "fairly bad" injuries, and Water Resources
    Minister Martha Karua. He said all the injured were out of
    danger.

    Khalif and several of the other passengers on the plane
    were newly-appointed ministers of the government of President
    Mwai Kibaki, whose historic election victory ended nearly 40
    years of rule by Moi's KANU party.

    Kibaki, 71, was admitted to hospital on Monday for bed
    rest to help him recover from a car crash in December in which
    he sustained injuries including a broken arm, dislocated ankle
    and spinal fracture.

    Witnesses said the mood in the small town of Busia on the
    Ugandan border, 340 km (210 miles) northwest of Nairobi, was
    sombre.

    "We are all asking ourselves here what is happening to our
    government, it is pretty bad," said Busia resident Peter
    Awour, contacted by Reuters by telephone.

    Presidential press spokesman Isayah Kabira said the plane
    had been carrying 13 people, including an air steward.

    The plane crash into the electricity pylon caused a
    partial blackout in the Busia area when it happened at about
    6.30 p.m. (1530 GMT), government officials said.

    Kibaki's press unit issued a statement expressing deep
    sorrow for the deaths and said the government had launched an
    investigation.

    Khalif, a softly spoken former journalist and long-term
    head of the Supreme Council of Kenya Muslims, was viewed as a
    moderate politician and was a major shareholder of Iqra FM, a
    Muslim radio station based in Nairobi.


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