A trip to launch peacemaking efforts between rival towns in Marsabit County was scheduled for April 10, 2006.

As a result, the peace delegation's passengers boarded a twin-engine Harbin Y-12 turboprop built by the Chinese for the Kenyan Air Force.

In order to attend a peace conference between factions in northern Kenya, whose conflict peaked in 2005 when violence broke out, the jet was transporting officials from Nairobi to Marsabit.

There were 17 persons on board, including MPs, the provincial commissioner, flight crew members, Moyale district commissioner Peter Kingola, and William Waqo, the Anglican bishop of Kirinyaga Diocese.


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The leaders included MPs Bonaya Godana, who was at the time the deputy leader of the opposition, Abdi Sasura, Guracha Galgallo, Laisamis, as well as Titus Ngoyoni, the assistant minister for regional development, MP Abdullahi Adan, a member of the East African parliament, and MP Mirugi Kariuki, the assistant minister for internal security.

After years of hostility, it was the first time that the leaders of the three tribes—the Borana, Gabra, and Rendille—had consented to meet and develop a comprehensive peace plan.

Eyewitnesses reported that the plane caught fire around 10 am, some 430 kilometres northeast of Nairobi, close to Marsabit National Park.

Out of the 17 passengers, only three made it out alive. They were Senior Sergeant Isaac King'ori Mureithi, Senior Private Trevor Lukwe Mwamuye, and Patrick Osare, who served as the Eastern Province's provincial commissioner then.


All six members of parliament, including two assistants, passed away.

In addition, lower-ranking officials, police officers, and Air Force crew members died. An undersecretary in the president's office also perished.

Alfred Mutua, the then-Government spokesman, had suggested that the weather might have caused the accident.

Then, he remarked, "Initial reports suggest that the crash may have been caused by poor visibility brought on by bad weather over Marsabit Hill."

In a speech to Kenyans, the late President Mwai Kibaki extended his sympathies to the families of the slain, whom he described as "peacemakers."

However, it wasn't the first time a plane carrying important officials went down.

A minister and two pilots perished in a private jet disaster in western Kenya in January 2003.


Raphael Tuju, the former secretary general of the Jubilee Party, was one of three other cabinet ministers who escaped.

A public inquiry following the crash recommended that no more than three Cabinet ministers or other senior government officials board a single aircraft.