The Uganda government yesterday joined Kenya in mourning the death of two Kenyan ministers, Prof. George Saitoti (Internal Security) and his deputy Joshua Orwa Ojode.

The two are among the six government officials who died aboard the police helicopter that crashed at Ngong Forest on the outskirts of Nairobi yesterday morning. Prof. Saitoti and Ojode, two pilots, and two of their bodyguards were burnt beyond recognition. The team was on its way to a Church service in Oyugis, western Kenya when the Eurocopter came down in the Kibuku forest around 8.30am shortly after taking off from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport.

“As government we are saddened by the sudden death of Saitoti and his deputy. George Saitoti is a known statesman who participated in the liberation of Kenya and East Africa at large”.

“At this time when we are heading for a political federation, we shall miss him a lot,” Mr Asuman Kiyingi, the State Minister for Regional Affairs, said.
“It is sad, it is absolutely sad. We sympathise with the Kenyan citizens and their families for the loss of the two ministers,” Mr Eriya Kategaya, the Ugandan first deputy prime minister and minister of East Africa, said.

By press time, the cause of the crash was still unknown. According to the Minister of Information, Ms Mary Karooro Okurut, “as government [Uganda] we are in touch with Kenya and we await the outcome of the investigations into the cause of the crash.”
Prof. Saitoti, the former long-serving vice president in Arap Moi’s regime, had made known his intentions to contest the presidency in the general elections slated for March 2013.

Saitoti,66, has served Kenya in many capacities, as vice president, minister of Finance, Education and recently Internal Security. The crash comes just four years after, a similar crash occurred on June 10, 2008 in the same area in Rift valley, killing Kipkalya Kones, who was the minister for roads then, and MP Lorna Laboso

President Mwai Kibaki and Prime Minister Raila Odinga paid tribute to Saitoti, who as security minister, oversaw the incursion of Kenyan forces into neighbouring Somalia last year to batter the terror group, al-Shabaab, that has been blamed for a series of terror attacks and kidnappings in Kenya.

Hard working servant
“Minister Saitoti will forever be remembered as a hardworking and determined public servant who dedicated his time to the service of the Kenyan people. Orwa Ojode will be remembered for his focused approach while undertaking his duties with great zeal and determination as an Assistant Minister and the Member of Parliament for Ndhiwa Constituency,” President Kibaki said in a statement.

“The government will ensure a thorough probe” into the cause of the crash, Mr Odinga said. Saitoti declared recently that the government would not be cowed by “terrorists”. Police earlier yesterday said the bodies of the two and four other people on the police helicopter were burned beyond recognition at Kibiku Forest within Ngong hills outside Nairobi.

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Prof. George Saitoti’s long political career

Professor George saitoti was born on August 3, 1945 in Kajiado, Masaai land. 
Saitoti had his undergraduate Education at Brandeis University through a Wien Scholarship specialising in Mathematics and Economy between 1963 and 1967. He later moved to UK where he acquired his Master of Science Degree in Mathematics from University of Sussex.

He enrolled for his doctoral studies at the University of Warwick where he finally acquired his PhD in Mathematics. As an Economist, Saitoti served as chairperson of the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund from 1990 – 1991, having headed the department of Mathematics at the University of Nairobi before.

Long before joining mainstream politics, he represented Kenya in the initial East Africa Community from 1974 -1977 in the East African Legislative Assembly He joined politics as an MP for Kajiado North Constituency and Minister of Finance under the Moi government in 1983, a position that later opened the door for him to become the longest serving Vice President of Kenya (1989-2002), later Minister for education, Foreign Affairs and recently Minister of State in the Office of the President in charge of Internal Security and Provincial Administration.

His recommendation as chairperson of the KANU Review Committee commonly known as the Saitoti Committee in 1990-1991, opened the political space in Kenya to return to multiparty politics. Section 2A of the Kenyan constitution was to later be repealed. Saitoti later left KANU after Moi gave the card to represent KANU in election to Uhuru Kenyatta. Saitoti had been certain he would be the next KANU candidate, so had Raila leading them to joining the opposition.

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