Kenyan Interior Minister George Saitoti was killed Sunday alongside a junior minister and four others after a police helicopter crashed near Nairobi, the vice-president said. “It is unfortunate that we have lost honourable Prof Saitoti, assistant minister Orwa Ojode,” Kalonzo Musyoka told journalists. Joshua Orwa Ojode was was assistant minister for internal security. Prime Minister Raila Odinga's spokesman said Odinga had been informed of the deaths of Saitoti and his deputy, Orwa Ojode. A former long-serving vice president under the former president Daniel Arap Moi, Saitoti was also a presidential candidate in an election expected to be held by March next year. A Reuters photographer counted three charred bodies at the scene of the crash in a forest in the Ngong area just outside of Nairobi. Debris of the burnt-out blue police helicopter were strewn in the brush where government officials and curious locals jostled to catch a glimpse. It was not immediately clear what caused the crash. More people were feared to have been on board the helicopter. Saitoti, an ally of President Mwai Kibaki, was the leading government voice against Somali militants Al-Shabab, often visiting the scenes of grenade attacks inside Kenya and vowing the east African nation would crush the group. Kenya's troops have been fighting Al-Shabab in neighboring Somalia since last October. The militants have killed several people in a string of grenade attacks in Nairobi, the far north and the coast in retaliation to Kenya's moves against them.
