The Kenya Civil Aviation Authority (KCAA) has imposed operating restrictions to 29 Air Operator Certificate (AOC) holders and 15 Approved Maintenance Organizations (AMOs) geared at ensuring conformity and affecting those that had not completed certification.
“The holder of the affected AOCs will cease all international operations until such a time that they have completed the certification process to the satisfaction of the Authority and in strict compliance with the applicable regulations,” KCAA Director General Gilbert Kibe.
He explained that Kenya being a signatory State to the Chicago Convention is obliged to ensure that all activities in the aviation industry are conducted in a manner consistent with the Convention and Annexes thereto.
“The provisions contained in ICAO Annexes Standards and Recommended Practices (SARPs) have been adopted as national requirement in the Kenya Civil Aviation Regulations (KCARs). Certification of Air Operators, Approved Maintenance Organizations therefore, as a legal requirement became applicable in 2008 when the initial sets of KCARs were promulgated,” he added.
Operators and Approved Maintenance Organizations have since been undergoing re-certification for those entities that existed before the coming into force of the regulations and certification for those entities that expressed interest after promulgation of regulations.
The directive comes as the Cessna plane that went missing Tuesday evening with 10 people on board was recovered in the Aberdare forest in central Kenya with no survivors. The plane belonging to Sax and operated by East African Safari Air Express was destined for the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) in Nairobi from Kitale when it went missing.
