President William Ruto’s official jet made a secret trip to Dubai on Saturday raising serious questions about the identity of the people who were on board and what their mission was, sauce.co.ke can reveal.
According to tracking software, the President’s jet left Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA) at 1:16 pm on Saturday afternoon.
The plane which is a Fokker 70 flying using tail number KAF 308 or Kenya 01 whenever the President is on board landed at the Al Makhtoum International Airport in Dubai at 7:43pm.
The plane then left Dubai on Sunday at 7:18 pm for a four and a half hour’s flight to Nairobi. It landed at JKIA at 11:21pm.
It is still not yet known who were on board on that one day trip to the Gulf. The Presidential jet rarely leaves the country unannounced unless the Head of State is part of the trip or if it is going for repairs.
Additionally, Presidential trips are usually publicised by his communication team. The President has not been seen in public either for the last two days. The last time he was seen in public was during the National Youth Service (NYS) pass out on Friday. He rarely misses church too like he did yesterday.
The presidential jet has however been busy for the last four days making short trips across the country. On Wednesday it left JKIA at 12pm for Eldoret International Airport landing at about 1 pm. It flew back to Nairobi at 1:22pm landing at 2:03pm.
On Friday it left JKIA at 3:58pm for Mombasa. It landed at 4:53pm. It only stayed there for 15 minutes leaving at 5:07 pm for a 45 minute trip back to Nairobi.It then left for Dubai the next day at 1:16pm.
The President was last publicly in Mombasa publicly last weekend when he launched the construction of a Taifa Gas Plant. He also did not have any public engagements outside Nairobi for the whole of last week apart from his short trip to Naivasha for the NYS pass out on Friday.
His presidential jet is not cheap to run or maintain. The average hourly rental rate of a Fokker 70 is around 11,150 USD per hour. The cost of running Ruto’s plane however is finance by taxpayers.
But unlike his predecessor, Ruto is not known to make silent trips abroad. His communication team usually makes advance statements if the President is supposed to travel.
What is creating murmurs is that the President for the first time since being elected missed attending church and he was not officially outside the country for duty. Infact he has only missed church twice since being sworn in with the last one being February 17 when he was in Ethiopia.
