The Internal Security Minister, George Saitoti, and at least five of
his colleagues died when the police helicopter they were travelling in
crashed on the outskirts of the city. Authorities are investigating the
cause of the crash, which comes at a time when Kenya is on high alert
for terrorist attacks. "As we speak now, nobody knows the cause of the
accident," the Prime Minister Raila Odinga said yesterday.
Mr
Saitoti pushed for Kenya's intervention last year in neighbouring
Somalia. Since then, there has been a spate of grenade attacks blamed by
police on supporters of the Somali militant group al-Shabaab. One
person was killed and dozens were injured last month in a firebomb
attack on a Nairobi shopping centre that has been linked to al-Shabaab.
The Islamist group has threatened an attack against a major Kenyan
target in the coming month.
Mr Saitoti, 66, was one of the
country's most prominent politicians, a veteran of the authoritarian
government of Daniel Arap Moi. Mr Saitoti had been Vice-President and
held several ministries.
He was implicated in the country's
largest corruption scandal, the Goldenberg affair, in which billions of
dollars of public money were stolen as part of a gold export scheme.
After
a period of political exile he returned to the cabinet under the
current President Mwai Kibaki, whose administration was revealed by its
own anti-corruption tsar, John Githongo, to be involved in similar grand
corruption schemes.
An unusual figure in senior Kenyan politics,
Mr Saitoti had a mixed background from the Masai and Kikuyu tribes. His
sudden death nine months before a crucial election in East Africa's
biggest economy may force a reorganisation of alliances in a campaign
set to be dominated by the rivalry of Mr Odinga and the former Finance
Minister Uhuru Kenyatta, the son of Jomo Kenyatta, Kenya's first
president.
KWA HABARI ZAIDI NA VIDEO BOFYA HAPA: 
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