A photo of the Cessna 208B registration number 5YPOL. The plane was sent on a private mission by a senior police official at a time when it should have been deployed to transport RECCE squad members to Garissa University Collage to end the siege by Al Shabaab gunment

A photo of the Cessna 208B registration number 5YPOL. The plane was sent on a private mission by a senior police official at a time when it should have been deployed to transport RECCE squad members to Garissa University Collage to end the siege by Al Shabaab gunmen (Photo: Nation FM)

There is mounting outrage over revelations that the delay in rescuing students caught up in the terror attack at Garissa University College was caused, in part, by the fact that a chopper to be used for the mission had instead been deployed to transport the relative of senior police commandant and an unnamed businessman hours after it was apparent that the university was under attack by Al Shabaab gunmen.

The revelations have come to light following reporting by the People Daily and Daily Nation that quoted insider sources who confirmed that the Cessna 208B registration number 5YPOL police chopper had left Wilson Airport for Mombasa at 7:30 A.M two and a half hours after the attack at Garissa University Collage had began. The People Daily was coy in its reporting only going as far as saying that the plane’s trip to Mombasa was a “private non-police mission.”

The Daily Nation took things a bit further by revealing that the plane had gone to Mombasa to pick up the daughter-in-law of the Kenya Police Airwing commandant Rogers Mbithi.

There is however no confirmation yet on the name of the businessman also reported to have been on the flight.

Pressure is already mounting on Mbithi, who has had a long and distinguished career in the police force, to resign following the revelations:

 

Confirmation that the police plane was on a private mission is the clearest evidence yet that communication failures and corruption contributed to the death toll at Garissa University College. This is troubling especially if you consider that this is not the first time that corruption and incompetence at the Police Airwing has cost lives.

Yet the people in charge appear to be indifferent.

The Police Airwing is not new to corruption scandals. There have been reports of police planes being used to train private pilots as well as frequent reports of corruption in the purchase of spare parts for the police planes.

The revelations about the goings on the Police Airwing should provide proof that the war against corruption and the war against terror are tied. It’s enough evidence that corruption within the police force is the biggest stumbling block to the government’s efforts to win the war against Al Shabaab. It’s a shame that so many lives had to be lost for this to be put beyond doubt but now its up to the government to do something about it. The lives of Kenyans depend on it.