KENYA: Kenya's new government suffered a serious blow last night when a plane chartered by the government crashed near the Ugandan border, killing one minister and seriously injuring three others.
The Labour Minister, Mr Ahmed Mohamed Khalif (53), died when the 24-seater Gulfstream jet crashed seconds after taking off from Busia, 210 miles west of Nairobi, at about 6 p.m.
According to witnesses, the plane failed to gain altitude, struck an electricity pylon and nose-dived into a house. Both pilots were killed and three other cabinet ministers were in a "critical condition" last night, according to Kenya's Vice-President, Mr Kijana Wamalwa.
The accident comes at a sensitive moment for President Mwai Kibaki's government, which came to power only three weeks ago following a historic election victory.
"The town is wailing," said Father Thaddeus Ndubi, a Catholic priest in Busia, a sentiment echoed by shocked Kenyans throughout the country.
"This is a tragedy. It is a very uncertain time," the National Development Minister, Prof Anyang Nyongo, said by telephone from Kisumu, the lakeside town where the ill-fated plane had been due to land.
The ministers had travelled to Busia to attend a celebration party for Mr Moody Awori, the newly-appointed Minister of Home Affairs.
Among those badly injured were the Information and Tourism Minister, Mr Raphael Tuju, and the Water Minister, Ms Martha Karua.
The accident shattered the sense of euphoria which has buoyed Kenyans since Mr Kibaki's landmark election victory, which ended 40 years of rule under President Daniel arap Moi's KANU party.
The new administration has effected a number of drastic changes during its first weeks in power. Corrupt officials have been sacked, investigations have been begun into the theft of public money and the notoriously crooked judiciary has come under intense scrutiny.
However, illness and accidents began to plague the new administration even before it was elected.
President Kibaki was involved in a car accident in early December and was confined to a wheelchair; earlier this week, he was readmitted to hospital suffering from blood clots to his leg.
The vice-president, Mr Wamalwa, has only recently returned to Nairobi from London, where he was receiving treatment for liver problems.
The jet which crashed yesterday was carrying 13 passengers.
A Kenyan pilot who is familiar with Busia that it was "complete madness" to attempt to land such an aircraft on a short, rough airstrip.
"There is a line of gum trees at one end and a terrible surface. They should have dumped fuel and taken off without passengers," he said.
Mr Khalif, who died shortly after reaching hospital, was a prominent Muslim and the only politician from the remote north-eastern region to be given a ministerial post in the new government. A journalist by training, he worked for the Kenya Broadcasting Corporation and the BBC before entering politics in 1979.
Ms Karua and Ms Linah Kilimo, an assistant minister who was also injured, were among six women ministers appointed by the new government.
Ms Karua (45), a barrister and a single mother of two, has a reputation for being a tough-talking but principled politician.