24 January 2003
Kenyan ministers in fatal plane crash
plane carrying senior members of Kenya's new government crashed yesterday, killing one minister and the two pilots, and leaving three ministers and several members of parliament seriously injured.
The 24-seater Gulfstream aircraft crashed into a house after snagging a power line on takeoff from Busia in far western Kenya, according to members of the government watching from the ground.
Four of Kenya's most powerful politicians, including the ministers for trade and home affairs, had disembarked from the plane just before takeoff.
The crash was a demoralising blow to the new government of President Mwai Kibaki, a discordant coalition of 14 former opposition parties which swept to power late last month.
Mr Kibaki was himself admitted to hospital this week to recover from the effects of a car crash he was involved in during the election campaign.
In a country with a history of political assassinations, the regional police chief Peter Kimanthi said it was too soon to rule on the cause of the crash. Western diplomatic sources said they did not immediately suspect foul play.
The labour minister, Ahmad Mohammed Khalif, died shortly after being admitted to a nearby hospital. Dr Joseph Nakaya, who treated him, said: "I am sorry to announce to the press that that the Hon Khalif has died on arrival at the hospital due to severe chest and head injuries."
The Kenyan vice-president, Kijana Wamalwa, said three ministers were in a "critical condition" after the crash.
The three are the tourism minister Raphael Tuju, and two of Kenya's first women to make the cabinet: the minister of state in the office of the president, Linah Kilimo, and the water minister, Martha Karua.
Of the remaining nine passengers, three or four were members of parliament and were "also in critical condition," Mr Wamalwa said. All were being flown to Nairobi for treatment.
The passengers included a leading woman lawyer and a politician's wife, Mr Wamalwa said, without giving details of their injures.
Speaking by phone from the crash site, Mr Kimanthi said the plane "hit an electric cable, and that brought it down
The plane is a complete wreck," he added. "It landed on top of a house. It is dark here, but people are trying to see if any other people were trapped. We are sorting out the mess."
Mr Kimanthi could not say whether anyone in the demolished house had been injured or killed.
Local journalists who witnessed the crash said Busia's airstrip, close to the Ugandan border, was in a poor condition - a legacy of the ruinous 24-year rule of Mr Kibaki's predecessor, Daniel arap Moi.
Mr Kibaki spent the closing weeks of the election campaign, which gave Kenya its first change of government since independence in 1963, in a London hospital, after breaking an arm, dislocating an ankle and breaking his neck in the road accident.
He was readmitted to hospital in Nairobi on Monday, suffering from a blood clot and high blood pressure Mr Kibaki is running the government from his sickbed, but is expected to be discharged next week