In 2015 the American company, Boeng, estimated that China will spend $1 trillion to purchase approximately 6,810 airplanes for the next two decades. These are high quality planes nicknamed “planes of tomorrow” by many industry analysts.
The Chinese air passenger traffic is estimated to grow by 6.4 percent over the next twenty years. Boeing is confident on this prediction because the company is already investing $1 billion per year in the Chinese aviation industry.
Chinese commitment to quality is phenomenal and admirable. Elsewhere in Kenya, quality is never a factor considering the rate at which Police helicopters are crashing. In 2012, a Police Air Wing plane crashed and killed six people among them the then Minister for Internal Security Professor George Saitoti.
Most recently, another police aircraft crashed at Mathare Nairobi injuring three passengers on board. This is another incident of poor safety records. The Augusta Westland helicopter was acquired from Italy at a cost of Ksh. 680 million through what the Standard newspaper called single sourcing. The plane failed the test for safety.
It is a high time that we commit ourselves towards quality planes for the our Police Air Wing. The police officers are our brothers, fathers, sons and daughters and hence should not be subjected to the consequences of poor safety records. We are saddened by their demise through aircraft accidents which can be avoided. We can bring this situation to an end if we drop our greed and embrace quality, accountability and openness.
