The government has secretly acquired a new engine for an MI-17 helicopter refurbished in June last year.
The acquisition comes after MPs in June last year put the Interior ministry on the spot for buying four police aircraft from Italy without the approval of Parliament.
The aircraft landed in the country on June 29 from Italy, costing taxpayers Sh4.8 billion. The MPs learnt about the machines when they made an impromptu visit to the police air wing at the Wilson Airport in Nairobi.
The Star has established that top officials at the Interior ministry and the police air wing arrived a week to Christmas with the new engine, in a secret deal expected to run into hundreds of millions of shillings.
Efforts to get a comment from the police bosses failed after they kept referring us to each other. When contacted, police air wing commander Rodgers Mbithi referred us to police spokesperson Charles Owino.
The spokesperson when contacted referred us back to Mbithi.
Authorities at the Interior ministry and police have kept procurement details secret, claiming it touches on security despite critics raising concerns of how funds are being used.
“They left the country to purchase the new engine after the one that came with the chopper broke down under unclear circumstances,” an officer attached to the wing said.
Details of the procurement process remain scanty. Auditors say the police air wing experiences significant issues involving training, procurement, safety management, maintenance and airworthiness of its aircraft.
As a result, the wing is one of the poorly managed units within the police service. The police wing has 11 choppers to boost security and transport VIPs.
In 2016, two aircraft owned by the police crashed in Nairobi one month after purchase.
