Kenyan Pilot, Tobias Ogeto, Resigns From National Police Service Over Tribalism Claims

According to news coming out of Kenya, Airwing Tobias Ogeto, a pilot working with the National Police Service, has tendered his resignation letter accusing his bosses at the police service of nepotism and tribalism.

There is no denying that tribalism and nepotism are evil fruits which must be removed from the tree of Africa if it is to grow well. However, the sad truth remains the fact that these fruits are ever present and increasing in size.

In a twist of events, the National Police Service (NPS) while reacting to the issue through its spokesman, Charles Owino said that there were no cases of tribalism or nepotism in the service and that the pilot had only resigned in protest to the disciplinary measures vented on him by his superiors.

The pilot claims he has been denied promotion on tribal grounds, being the only one from his community working with NPS as a pilot.

Surprisingly, the National Police Service (NPS) spokesman Charles Owino accused Airwing Tobias Ogeto of being a dangerous pilot who cannot be trusted with an aircraft.

“His colleagues are in the same rank with him [constable] and are not complaining. He has done the instrumentation rating which he claims he has never done and has a certificate for it.

“We grounded him because of indiscipline. All the pilots he trained with are still waiting to be confirmed as police pilots and that is when we will write a letter recommending one to be promoted on merit. He is not a person you can allow to fly.

“Discipline here is everything even in Air-force we were taught that being a pilot is nothing without discipline.

"We cannot take chances with an aircraft, because you will die and kill other innocent people," the spokesman said.

But if this is true, why wasn’t the pilot sacked? If you term a pilot ‘dangerous’ and one ‘who cannot be trusted with an aircraft’, why was he still in the employ of the police force?

Airwing Tobias Ogeto wrote to the outgoing IG Joseph Boinnet, his deputy Edward Mbugua and the Directorate of the NPS Airwing Commander Rodgers Mbithi giving a one-month notice to announce his resignation. He said he is proceeding on terminal leave ahead of his resignation on April 26.

Charles Owino said the pilot was hired as a general recruit and later met qualifications when the NPS was looking for five officers to train as pilots.

Header Image Credit: Wikipedia