- The military has now demanded that the police hand to them a chopper that was factory made for surveillance purposes.
- This is despite the fact that there is another one, which is in VIP factory configuration.
There are silent murmurs in police over a plan to takeover an expensive custom-made operational chopper.
The military plans to takeover and repair a police Agusta AW139 purchased for operational surveillance and hand it to Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua.
The DP had apparently asked the Kenya Airforce for a chopper to use for his official duties, officials aware said.
Since the military had no chopper to give Gachagua, they reportedly advised him to ask for one from the police.
State House Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Felix Koskei wrote to the Inspector General of police and ordered the handover of one of the two Agusta AW139 choppers to the Kenya Airforce for use by the DP.
The military has now demanded that the police hand them a chopper that was factory-made for surveillance purposes.
This is despite the fact that there is another one, which is in the VIP factory configuration.
“The one they picked has a surveillance camera with a screen monitor in the cabin and it is linked to two ground stations based in Nairobi and Mombasa, which can receive live transmissions when the helicopter is airborne,”one official aware of the issue said.
The chopper also has two vehicle-mounted stations which can be taken to any part of the country where there is conflict to enable commanders to see the real situation on the ground.
This means the mounted equipment on the chopper to be used by the DP will be dismantled.
Police have protested the move by the military to demand the surveillance chopper instead of the VIP one saying it is aimed at crippling their own internal operations.
“It means all this equipment, which cost the government huge sums will be dismantled when we have a fully configured VIP Agusta which they don't want to take. Ask them why,” another officer said.
The officers at the National Police Service Airwing want their commanders to stand firm and reject the military move.
Police headquarters and the Department of Defence refused to comment on the saga.
A senior officer aware of the issue said the matter will be escalated to the President for his information and decision.
“It is important for him to know where we are and why. We have suffered much and with this move, it means some operations will be grounded,” the official said.
The advanced mission helicopter which is now in contention is equipped with a camera capable of scanning car number plates and zooming into individuals in a crowd within a range of at least five kilometres.
The airwing is a key support unit of the National Police Service.
In December 2020, former President Uhuru Kenyatta presided over the official handover to the military the management of government civilian-owned planes in the country.
He later launched National Air Support Department (NASD) at Wilson Airport in Nairobi.
Uhuru then emphasised the NASD mandate to provide centralised management of national aviation assets for optimal utilisation, management and serviceability.
Other roles of NASD are to enhance safety, swift response and quality of aviation services in line with the various stakeholders’ core mandates.
He regretted that in the past, the lack of proper maintenance of aviation equipment within the national civilian air fleet brought tragedies to the nation.
“Indeed, the result of this approach has been poor manning and state of aircraft serviceability in each of the individual government departments," Uhuru said.
"In some cases, departments had more air assets, with less manpower while others had more manpower with fewer assets and others had low serviceability rates."
He said the inauguration of NASD signals a new era in the management of the country’s aviation assets, one which promises greater safety, efficiency and quality.
He challenged the department's leadership to work hard to become the benchmark for other government agencies.
(Edited by Tabnacha O)