Kenya’s military on Saturday paid a tribute to its army chief who died in a helicopter accident this week with a 19-gun cannon salute and a religious ceremony.
President William Ruto, along with deputy president Rigathi Gachagua and opposition leader Raila Odinga, attended the ceremony at the Ulinzi Sports Complex in the capital Nairobi.
Francis Omondi Ogolla’s coffin, draped with the Kenyan flag, entered the enclosure at 1:00 pm (10:00 GMT), accompanied by fanfare before a minute of silence was held for the former Chief of the Kenya Defense Forces (CDF).
Ogolla, 61, and nine other military officials perished on Thursday when their helicopter went down in a remote region in the west of the country, just short of a year since his appointment as armed forces head by President Ruto.
Ogolla, a trained fighter pilot, was killed when his helicopter went down shortly after takeoff in the remote Sindar forested area in Elgeyo Marakwet county in northwestern Kenya, some 400 kilometers or 250 miles from Nairobi.
He had been visiting troops deployed in a security operation in the North Rift region, which is plagued by violence caused by armed bandits and cattle rustlers. Two military personnel aboard survived the crash.
According to Ruto, the crew were on a Bell UH-1B helicopter, nicknamed “Huey,” a model developed in the 1950s and used notably by U.S. forces serving in the Vietnam War.
Kenyan media have reported that Thursday’s crash was the fifth involving a Kenyan military helicopter in the past year with a considerable number of them being old and poorly maintained.
The Kenya Air Force has dispatched a team of investigators to determine what caused the accident which sparked three days of mourning from Friday across the East African nation.
