The KCAA has linked a plane that sneaked miraa into Somalia to Mogadishu. The plane allegedly lifted miraa from dobley to Southern Somalia.
Somalia authorities had linked the plane to Kenya and protested a violation of its airspace but in a swift rebuke, KCAA said, the company, Maandeeq Air, is a Somalia registered aviation company based in Aden Adde airport in Mogadishu. The company operates two Focker F50 aircraft both having Kenyan registration, 5Y SMS and 5Y MIS.
“On Friday, 19th June 2020, one of the aircrafts flown by Captain Amiin landed at Dobley Airport in the wee hours” said Captain Gilbert Kibe, Director General, Kenya Civil Aviation Authority
The aircraft took off on the same day at 7:30am with atleast 300 bags of Khat (miraa).
According to Alex Macheras who is an Aviation analyst, Somali Civil Aviation Authority, like in other sovereign states, retains the sole mandate to control their airspace and blaming it on Kenya is either lack of information or pushing their boundaries and perhaps settling old scores.
“Somali Civil Aviation Authority, like in other sovereign states, retains the sole mandate to control their airspace and blaming it on Kenya is either lack of information or pushing their boundaries and perhaps settling old scores”
An interview with one of our stringers at Liboi, neighbouring Dobley, indicated a laxity and complacency of local airport authorities in controlling the airstrip. Kenya Defence Forces troops under AMISOM no longer manages the airstrip but handed over the control to locally trained Somalia airport officials.
