Final sendoff for Ngong crash victims

By Peter Orengo and Cyrus Ombati

Burial plans for Internal Security Minister George Saitoti and his Assistant Minister Joshua Orwa Ojode – both killed in Sunday Ngong chopper crash – are complete.

Sources reveal their charred remains were identified during a post-mortem on Monday. Close family members were able to pick out their loved ones. Given the state of the bodies it is unlikely there would be any viewing of the body.

The funeral service for Ojode takes place on Thursday 8am, at Nairobi Central Seventh Day Adventist Church (also called Maxwell). It will be attended by Cabinet members and Members of Parliament as well as top public servants led by President

Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga, as well as the late Ndhiwa MP’s friends, relatives and supporters.

Saitoti’s requiem Mass takes place on Friday at Holy Family Basilica, Nairobi, before burial on Saturday. Ojode will be buried on Sunday. As in the case of Ojode, the country’s top leadership is expected to attend both Saitoti’s requiem Mass and burial, led by the President and PM.

Ojode’s prayer meeting was fixed to start in the morning because his former colleagues in Parliament must later in the afternoon be in the House for the presentation of 2012-2013 budgetary estimates by Finance Minister Njeru Githae.

Wednesday evening, a team of foreign investigators went to the crash site in Ngong Forest to gather materials that could help unravel the cause of the horrific crash, which also claimed the lives of two pilots and two police officers.

Journalists overheard them saying the chopper could have come down following engine failure. This is because of their conclusion that the impact on the ground and the way the debris was spread was consistent with cases where chopper pilots lose control of their machines.

They are Saitoti’s bodyguards Inspector Joshua Tonkei and Sergeant Thomas Murimi, as well as police pilot Nancy Gituanya and her assistant in the ill fated flight Luke Oyugi.

The funeral committee led by Vice-President Kalonzo Musyoka and the families of all the six killed in the crash have agreed on the burial dates.

Prof Saitoti’s remains will be interred at his Kitengela Farm in Kajiado North on Saturday. Ojode’s burial will take place the following day in Ndhiwa. The investigators who included those from Eurocopter, the manufacturer of the AS350BE chopper, visited the scene escorted by police. They were drawn from South Africa and France.

Later in the afternoon, another group of white men, who officials said had been hired by the families of the deceased, also visited the accident site at the Kibiku area of Ngong Forest.

Also visiting the site was security expert Capt (Rtd) Simiyu Werunga who thereafter described the crash thus: “It must have come down like a stone given the impact of the landing. This is consistent with a situation where a pilot loses control and that is normally caused by an engine failure.”

Prayer service

The site remained under police watch and area police boss Hussein Farah said they had been ordered to secure it until the Justice Kalpana Rawal probe team visits.

The Government will shoulder all the burial costs, including the burial of those who perished in another tragedy on Saturday evening when a building collapsed in Mlolongo, Athi River. Yesterday’s meeting chaired by Kalonzo in Jogoo House, also deliberated on the burial dates for the pilots and bodyguards, and it was agreed they be buried next.

“We are doing our best to make sure we give our colleagues a befitting send-off. We have finished with prayer arrangements and venues,” announced Kalonzo.

The 20-member technical committee team decided that arrangement would be made to fly Ojode’s body to Ndhiwa in Nyanza Province. As per his community’s traditions, Ojode’s body will have to be at his home through the night preceding the burial. Saitoti’s Mass starts at 2:30am Friday.

The families of Tonkei and Murimi together with those of pilots Gituanja and Oyugi decided to have a joint prayer service on Monday next week followed by funeral services on Wednesday.

Kalonzo also announced the Government would open an education trust for the children of the two pilots and the police officers. “Everything is in top gear and I hope this time of mourning will bring the whole country together irrespective of where we come from or our political affiliations,” said Kalonzo.

On Wednesday the committee visited the homes of the two pilots at West Park Estate next to Carnivore Restaurant and the two bodyguards’ homes’ at Highridge Estate, Parklands.

Those present at the meeting included Cabinet ministers Amos Kimunya, Wycliffe Oparanya, James Orengo, Dalmas Otieno and Naomi Shabaan, and Assistant ministers Gideon Konchellah, Wilfred Machage, and Joseph Nkaissery.

Others present were Government’s co-Chief Whip Johnstone Muthama, acting Head of Public Service Francis Kimemia, and Permanent Secretaries Bitange Ndemo, Ludeki Chweya, Mutea Iringo, and Andrew Mondoh.

Preparation

In Nyanza the Provincial Commissioner Francis Mutie led a team of security officers to Ojode’s home in Unga and his parents’ home at Ratang’a.

Mutie said he was happy with the preparation at the late Ojode’s home, adding and all was set for the Sunday burial.

Ndhiwa DC Geoffrey Omoding said there were two committees working on the burial plans: One in Nairobi led by Kalonzo, and another at his rural home.

Ojode’s remains will leave Lee Funeral Home on Friday for his parents’ home in Ratang’a before the burial on Sunday at his home in Unga. In Nairobi, retired President Daniel Moi mourned the death of Saitoti, who was his Vice- President for 13 years.

Also visiting Saitoti’s family was a group of Catholic Church bishops led by Cardinal John Njue. The Cardinal called on the government to conduct thorough investigations into the crash.

Njue said Kenyans would remain eager to know the cause of the accident and thus urged the Government to expedite the probe but be thorough in the work.