On April 10, 2006 a mission was planned to initiate efforts to reconcile warring communities in Marsabit County.
As a result, members of the peace delegation boarded a Chinese-built Kenyan Air Force Harbin Y-12 twin-engine turboprop.
The plane was carrying officials from Nairobi to Marsabit to participate in a peace conference among factions in northern Kenya whose conflict reached a height in 2005 when violence broke out.
17 people were on the plane including MPs, the provincial commissioner, plane crew members, Moyale district commissioner Peter Kingola and Anglican Bishop for Kirinyaga Diocese William Waqo.
The leaders, among them, was the then deputy leader of opposition and North Horr MP Bonaya Godana, Saku MP Abdi Sasura, Moyale MP Guracha Galgallo, Laisamis MP and also assistant minister of regional development Titus Ngoyoni, Abdullahi Adan, member of the East African parliament, MP Mirugi Kariuki, the assistant minister for internal security.
It was the first time that the leaders of the three groups, the Borana, Gabra, and Rendille, had agreed to sit together and come up with a comprehensive peace programme after years of hostilities.
At around 10 am, eyewitnesses said the plane burst into flames near Marsabit National Park, about 430km northeast of Nairobi.
Only three of the 17 people on the plane survived. They were the then Provincial Commissioner for Eastern Province Patrick Osare and Kenya Airforce crew members Senior Sergeant Isaac King’ori Mureithi and Senior Private Trevor Lukwe Mwamuye.
All 6 MPs including those who were also assistant ministers in the government died.
There was also an undersecretary in the president's office, lower-level officials, police and Air Force crewmembers who perished.
The then Government spokesman Alfred Mutua had said that weather might had played a part in the accident.
"Initial reports indicate that the airplane may have crashed due to poor visibility caused by bad weather over Marsabit Hill," he said then.
The late President Mwai Kibaki, in an address to Kenyans sent his condolences to the families of the deceased, whom he called "peacemakers."
However, it was not the first time that a plane has gone down carrying leading politicians.
In January 2003, a minister and two pilots were killed when a private plane crashed in western Kenya.
Three other government ministers survived including former Jubilee Party Secretary General Raphael Tuju.
A public inquiry into the accident recommended that no more than three Cabinet ministers or senior government officials should travel on a single plane.
17 years ago today, disaster struck the heart of Marsabit which claimed lives of so many prominent Kenyans; majority of whom were from Marsabit. Gone but never forgotten 💔. In their memory let's maintain peace pic.twitter.com/BMN20hQK9K
— Halkano Dida (@HalkeHd) April 10, 2023