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Police receive 3 helicopters including an advanced mission chopper

The new choppers inspected by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi on Friday include two AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters; one configured for VIP use and another for advanced mission operations/SAM WANJOHI

NAIROBI, Kenya, June 29 – The National Police Service (NPS) has acquired three new helicopters in a bid to enhance the capabilities of the Police Air Wing.

The new choppers inspected by Interior Cabinet Secretary Fred Matiangi on Friday include two AgustaWestland AW139 helicopters; one configured for VIP use and another for advanced mission operations.

The advanced mission helicopter is equipped with a camera capable of scanning car number plates and zoom into individuals in a crowd within a range of at least 5 kilometers.

The third aircraft acquired by the police, an A12, has been configured for deployments with the capacity to ferry a dozen police officers in one go.

Speaking at the Wilson Police Air Wing Hangar, CS Matiangi said the government was determined to improve capabilities of the police noting an increase in the number of functional aircrafts from three in 2013 to eleven at the moment.

“When President Uhuru Kenyatta took office in 2013, we had three grounded helicopters. Today, we’re set to have a total of eleven functional helicopters by next month in addition to two fixed-wing aircrafts,” the interior chief told reporters.

Matiangi said President Kenyatta was keen to build the capacity of the police in line with his police modernization drive that has seen NPS equipped with new Armoured Personnel Carriers (APC).

In addition to the three helicopters received on Friday, the police received two trainer aircrafts from the Italian Police.

Speaking at the Police Air Wing, NPS Inspector General Joseph Boinnet lauded the government for continuously enhancing the capacity of the police saying the modernization programme had greatly enhanced security in the country.

“We’ve come a long way as a police service in terms of equipment and this means we are able to respond to incidents quicker,” Boinnet said.

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The new aircrafts estimated to have cost the taxpayers Sh 4 billion add into an assortment of police equipment procured under President Kenyatta’s administration.

In January 2017, President Kenyatta unveiled 30 APCs, 25 mine-resistant Armoured Personnel Carriers (MRPs), and over 500 vehicles under the police modernization scheme.

President Kenyatta said the equipment will boost the counter-terrorism war and insecurity especially in Baringo, West Pokot, and Bungoma’s Mount Elgon region where cases of insecurity were on the rise.

Official government statistics have shown the number of police vehicles to have been 3,155 in 2013.

The government has since acquired additional 2,720 police vehicles some of which have been leased, to enhance police mobility.

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