A travel passport belonging to South Sudan President Salva Kiir Mayardit has been recovered three decades after the politician was involved in a plane accident in Torongo, Baringo county.
South Sudan and Kenyan authorities managed to locate the site of the crash and recovered the document from a local family on Sunday, April 2.
The travel document along with those belonging to other occupants of the ill-fated plane had been safely kept by the family that also collected armlets from the scene of the December 1993 accident.
South Sudan Presidential Affairs Minister Barnaba Benjamin, while receiving the documents, said the government is planning to build a hospital in the area as a thanksgiving gesture to the locals.
"Kenya with all its leadership has always stood with the people of South Sudan," elated Benjamin remarked.
In a past interview, the family said after collecting the documents they kept them for two years without opening them to see their content.
But out of curiosity, one of the family members identified as Ezekial Keston decided to check, only to discover that the documents belonged to Sudanese nationals.
The locals were also surprised to discover Kiir's passport and armlet written SPLA and SPLM among the documents.
"After two years, we discovered that Salva Kiir was among the passengers we had rescued through their passport and armlet written SPLA (Sudan People's Liberation Army) and SPLM (Sudan People's Liberation Movement)," Keston said.
Kiir and four Sudanese diplomats were travelling from Wilson Aiport in Nairobi to Kamoa, Nimule, and South Sudan when the plane fell from 25,000 feet above the ground.
One passenger was killed instantly in the crash. The rest including Kiir survived the accident and were rescued by locals.
"We acted swiftly to check what was happening and found the wreckage of the plane with five passengers on board, four men and a woman, on rescuing them one person died, but the rest had blood oozing on their faces," Keston added.
