CS Davis Chirchir appoints team to investigate Kenyan aircraft crashes in Somalia, South Sudan

by Maxwell Amunga Monday April 27, 2026

Emergency responders at the aircraft accident scene on March 5, 2024 (left) and parts of the plane after the accident. Photo Aviation News

Kenya has launched a formal inquiry into a string of aircraft accidents involving its planes in Somalia and South Sudan, with Roads and Transport Cabinet Secretary Davis Chirchir appointing a special investigation team to dig into the incidents.

CS Chirchir gazetted the Aircraft Accident Investigation Team in a notice dated April 24, relying on the authority granted under Section 53(4) of the Civil Aviation Act, Cap. 394.

“IN EXERCISE of the powers conferred by section 53 (4) of the Civil Aviation Act, the Cabinet Secretary for Roads and Transport establishes the Aircraft Accident Investigation Team,” declared the notice.

Captain Peter Maranga will head the team as chairperson, while Fredrick Kabunge has been named Co-Chairperson and Engineer Fredrick Aggrey Opot Vice-Chairperson, forming a panel of seasoned aviation figures drawn from the Kenyan Military and the engineering field.

The membership further comprises Captain Nduati Herman Njama, Retired Lieutenant Colonel Mike Mulwa, Ephantus Kamau, Captain Valentine Wendoh, and James Mwangi, with Brenda Mwango, Mathias Ombasa, and Albert Mwangeka serving as Joint Secretaries.

According to the gazette notice, the team’s main assignment is to examine all preliminary accident reports from the past five years, with particular attention to accidents involving Kenyan-registered or Kenyan-operated aircraft submitted by South Sudan and Somalia.

In addition to reviewing the reports, the team is authorized to pursue associated lines of inquiry, scrutinize data and records, and interview aviation stakeholders in order to establish what happened and help reduce the risk of similar disasters in future.

The team may also co-opt additional experts as needed to assist in discharging its mandate, ensuring that no technical or investigative gap is left unaddressed in the course of its work.

Summary Of Kenyan Plane Crashes in Somalia and South Sudan 

The establishment of the team follows a series of fatal and near-fatal crashes, the latest being the March 2025 incident in which a Kenyan-registered DHC-5D Buffalo aircraft, registration 5Y-RBA, operated by Trident Aviation Ltd, went down near Mogadishu.

The aircraft was en route from Dhobley, Somalia, when it crashed about 24 kilometers southwest of the Somali capital, killing all five Kenyan crew members on board in one of the region’s deadliest recent aviation tragedies.

In May 2020, an African Express twin-engine aircraft carrying medical supplies was reportedly struck by a projectile as it approached Bardale airstrip, with the attack allegedly carried out by the Al-Shabaab Militia group at a base then used by Ethiopian military forces under the African Union(AU) mission.

More recently, on February 10 this year, a Skyward Express Dash 8, registration 5Y-GRS, crash-landed at a military base in Elwak, Somalia. Although the landing gear collapsed on impact, all 37 passengers and three crew members survived, escaping with only minor injuries.

In another case, a Jubba Airways Fokker 50, registration 5Y-JXN, overturned on landing at Aden Adde International Airport in Mogadishu on July 18, 2022, though everyone aboard lived through the accident.

South Sudan has also featured in the troubling record. On November 25, 2025, a cargo plane carrying food aid for charity Samaritan’s Purse crashed in Unity State, killing all three crew members, including a Kenyan national.

Separately, Kenyan pilot Captain Michael George Oluoch Nyamodi survived a major scare when his Boeing 727 was hit by a Sudanese military airstrike at Nyala Airport on May 3, 2025, in an area that was then under the control of the Rapid Support Forces.

The earliest incident included in the review is the November 4, 2015, crash of an Antonov An-12 cargo aircraft shortly after takeoff from Juba International Airport in South Sudan, an accident that left at least 37 people dead.

The notice gives CS Chirchir’s team two months from the gazette date to file a detailed report, which will be submitted to the Cabinet Secretary together with recommendations aimed at strengthening aviation safety in Kenya.