Kenya Police Admits Misuse of Plane Meant to Ferry Special Forces

Kenya Police Airwing chief Rogers Mbithi admitted misuse of a plane meant to fly special forces to the city of Garissa in order to stop the massacre by Somali terrorists, according to the local media.

MOSCOW (Sputnik) – On April 2, al-Shabaab extremists broke into Garissa University College in north-east Kenya, killing 148 people, mainly students, and injuring over 100 others. Local media reported that the commandos flew to the scene a full seven hours after the attack began because the police aircraft was being used to transport the Airwing commandant‘s relatives.

“There is nothing to hide. It [the plane] came back with her [his daughter-in-law] and two small children. I took full responsibility and explained that,” Mbithi said as quoted by the Daily Nation.

The official stressed that using the aircraft to ferry his relatives could not have affected commando response time, since the plane was already returning from a training exercise about flying in bad weather conditions.

Al-Shabaab, which declared allegiance to al-Qaeda in 2012, explained that the attack was revenge for Kenya’s military presence in Somalia. Kenyan troops were deployed in Somalia in October 2011 to fight insurgents after a string of kidnappings by the group.

The militant group has carried out numerous attacks in Kenya earlier, including the killings at the Westgate shopping mall in Nairobi in September 2013, which left at least 67 dead.

Following the massacre, the extremists warned about more forthcoming assaults in the country.