nairobi, kenya \u2014\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nKenya began three days of mourning on Friday after its defense chief and nine other senior officers were killed in a helicopter crash, the latest military accident involving a high-profile figure.<\/p>\n
A 19-gun salute will take place Saturday in a military tribute to General Francis Omondi Ogolla, the chief of the Kenya Defense Forces, in the presence of President William Ruto, the defense ministry announced.<\/p>\n
Ogolla was killed when his helicopter went down shortly after takeoff in a remote forested area of northwestern Kenya on Thursday.<\/p>\n
“A distinguished four-star general has fallen in the course of duty and service of the country,” Ruto said, announcing the deaths that evening.<\/p>\n
He said the Air Force had dispatched an investigation team to establish the cause of the accident.<\/p>\n
Ruto grieved with Ogolla’s family at a ceremony in Nairobi on Friday as the nation began observing the mourning period, with the Kenyan flag flying at half-mast across the country and at missions abroad.<\/p>\n
“Yesterday was truly a very, very tragic day,” the president said. “This is a big loss to the country because General Ogolla made a whole difference in the security of the country.”<\/p>\n
The family said in a statement that a funeral would be Sunday at Ogolla’s home in Siaya in the west of the country, followed by a memorial service in a Nairobi suburb on April 26.<\/p>\n
The bodies of the victims, draped in Kenyan flags, were returned to a military base in Nairobi on an air force plane late Thursday.<\/p>\n
One of the officers, Brigadier Swale Saidi, was buried in the Indian Ocean town of Kilifi on Friday and other funerals are expected in the coming days.<\/p>\n
Ogolla, a trained fighter pilot, had been promoted to the defense chief role by Ruto just a year ago and was about to mark 40 years of military service.<\/p>\n
He had been visiting troops deployed in a security operation in the North Rift region, which is plagued by violence caused by armed bandits and cattle rustlers.<\/p>\n
Ogolla’s daughter Lorna Ogolla said in a post on LinkedIn that her father died “doing what he did best for the better part of the last 40 years \u2014 trying to keep Kenya safe.”<\/p>\n
Messages of condolence were sent from across the country and the African continent as well as the United Nations, the United States and other Kenyan allies.<\/p>\n
“From combating terrorist threats posed by al-Shabab to leading efforts to bolster regional cooperation across a range of domains, he has left an indelible mark,” U.S. national security adviser Jake Sullivan said in a statement.<\/p>\n
The Standard newspaper said it was the fifth armed forces chopper crash in 12 months, with claims that Kenya’s military aircraft were old and poorly maintained.<\/p>\n
In June 2021, at least 10 soldiers were killed when their helicopter crashed during a training exercise south of Nairobi.<\/p>\n
Ogolla is among a number of high-profile victims of air accidents in Kenya. In 2012, internal security minister George Saitoti, seen as a possible presidential candidate, was among six people killed in a police helicopter crash.<\/p>\n
Kenya has one of the largest military budgets in the East Africa region, at $1.1 billion for the financial year ending in June 2024, according to government statistics.<\/p>\n
The International Institute for Strategic Studies estimated in its 2024 report, The Military Balance, the total number of active armed forces at 24,100.<\/p>\n
The East African nation is a major contributor to U.N. peacekeeping operations and also deploys troops for missions in the region.<\/p>\n
Ogolla, a married father of two, joined the KDF in April 1984, rising through the ranks to command the Kenyan Air Force in 2018, a post he held for three years before becoming vice chief of the defense forces in 2021 and then chief in April 2023.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
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