Kenya official: I did not cause delay in ending attack
Associated Press By TOM ODULA 16 hours ago http://news.yahoo.com/kenya-official-did-not-cause-delay-ending-attack-160946056.html
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — The use of a police plane for a personal errand did not delay the deployment of the police tactical team which ended the extremist attack in eastern Kenya where 148 people, the majority of them university students, were killed, a police official said in a statement.
Kenyans are demanding answers for why it took more than 12 hours to deploy members of the police counter-insurgency unit, the Recce Company, whose officers ended the April 2 siege at Garissa University College by four gunmen from Somalia’s al-Shabab Islamic extremist group.
Kenya Police Airwing Commander Rodgers Mbithi said in a statement to police investigators that his decision to allow his daughter-in- law and her children to be flown from Mombasa to Nairobi did not delay the movement of the Recce Company from Nairobi to Garissa
The law permits him to allow his pilots to pick and fly his relatives and civilians, Mbithi said in his statement.
“The in-law family resides at the coast and I was only asking for a lift to Nairobi. The pilot has the discretion of refusing to carry any passenger. He agreed to fly them,” he said.
A team of five officers has been appointed to investigate the police air wing over allegations that the unit failed to respond to the needs of the force during the attack.
Mbithi said the air wing has only three serviceable aircraft, including two planes and one small helicopter with capacity of four passengers.
On the day of the attack the helicopter had taken a police commander to northern Kenya and the plane had gone to Mombasa for a training exercise. By the time the flight departed Wilson airport at 7.26 am, the Recce had not been informed of any need to fly to Garissa
This is just another scapegoat, but ndauwo can’t see. Do you mean the sovereign Republic of kenya has only ONE, I REPEAT ONE police plane which could be used that day?!! In an emergency I believe even the police have a right to go to Wilson and commandeer a plane
I am not saying what he did was right, but he surely isn’t to blame for any delay
If you want Mbithi to take responsibility,who takes responsibility over Fidel’s remains that were ferried same way plus those non military of his family? Ama its because no attack happened when military planes were being used for personal use? Hii gava ina controlliwa na social media nonsense. Kesho watu wakiamka…waone lori ya jeshi ikichotea ocpd maji,hiyo issue ina trend as if we are new to the fact that this thing happens.
Yes. the kenya police may have only one airplane for field operations. the large helicopters are usually used to ferry politicians and senior police officers. Didnt you see police chief use one huge helicopter to get to baragoi as if he was needed there. If the Baragoi and Kapedo policemen had a reconnaissance military helicopter, they wouldnt have been killed.
The public never asks itself how institutions afford aircraft to ferry the bosses to where they want, but never afford them for potentially dangerous missions. the government never feels threatened anyway: “After all they will vote for me regardless.”
our security institution is still pathetic and needs a lot of changes. This country has the resources to get a helicopter or an aeroplane to recce or military anytime they need one. The problem is, our police bosses have the moi error way of doing things, which is to be served but not to serve others.
Watu wawache panganga,the recce company ånd to be precise chali company has å crew of about three thousand officers but the elite squad of recce squad wamebaki kama mbao hivi ,do you expect all of them to be airlifted to crisis zones,mbithi anapigwa siasa ya wanabiashara na juniors wake.
atleast we have a reply that can be classified as informed. we have so many security analysts in here (Bsc. Kenyatalk; B.A Kenyanlist; M.A Daily Nation and Diploma in reading the Star)
On the day this story broke, a very concise explanation was provided: that for purposes of practice, police pilots use the Nbi-Msa route since they consider it one of their most, if not the most, challenging (lotsa technical mumbo-jumbo was given which I don’t quite recall).
It so happens that on the fateful day, the pilot was on one such practice flight and only picked Rogers’ family members on his way back. It’s not like the flight left Nbi for Msa specifically to pick them up.
I dunno about you but this, to me, seemed plausible enough.