Former Attorney General Prof Githu Muigai has partnered with Skyward Express and Silverstone Air directors to start Renegade Air, a new air transport company.
According to registration documents in our possession, Issak Somo Ahmed has been listed as a director of the company. Somo works for Fly Skyward Express.
The company, which is set to start operations soon, has listed Gabriel Waweru Wainaina as the company secretary alongside Proven Registrars.
Skyward, Silverstone and Bluebird are owned by brothers.
Silverstone is owned by two brothers, Ibrahim Somow Ahmed and Mohamed Ibrahim Somow. The company, which was registered in September 2006, has been recording minor accidents with its planes in the recent past, forcing it to suspend passenger services.
Read: Silverstone Rebranding As It Seeks To Shed Negative Publicity
In February 2021, the company announced plans to rebrand, a year after exiting passenger services following questions over the safety of its planes.
Silverstone has already notified the regulator of the change of name, and will be known as Jetlite Air Limited.
The company says by the time it suspended passenger flights it had bookings worth over Ksh100 million, stretching up to 2022.
“We had bookings worth over Ksh100 million stretching into 2022. Most of those who booked directly and online have since been refunded. Those who booked tickets via agents will get refunded by those agents,” said Silverstone Air reservations manager Maureen Bittah.
Silverstone Air Services started as a charter and contract air operator using a Cessna Caravan CE208 to serve northern Kenya destinations and within South Sudan and primarily serving NGOs.
However, in 2017, the company rebranded to Silverstone Air, launching two 50-seater Fokker 50s to serve Kisumu and Ukunda-Diani in October.
Read: Skyward Express Plane Crash-lands in Mandera [Photos]
The airline has since expanded to coastal destinations of Malindi and Lamu, adding two lease-purchase agreements 37-seater Bombardier Dash 8 Q-100s. These were delivered in November and December 2017 respectively.
On the other hand, Skyward Express is 100 percent owned by Muhumed Abdi Mohamed.
Skyward, just like Silverstone, has been experiencing minor accidents with some of it aircrafts crashlanding due to poor maintenance.
In July, a plane operated by Skyward Express crash-landed in Elwak, Mandera County.
The flight — registration number 5Y-GRS— from Nairobi’s Wilson Airport crash-landed in Boru Hache military base near the Kenya-Somalia border.
The plane had 40 passengers on board during the incident.
Read: KCAA Dismisses Claims Aircraft Went Missing From Radar in Machakos
It is not yet clear whether Skyward and Silverstone will close down completely to pave way for the new entity, or they will operate concurrently.
The launch for Regenage Air is expected to happen on Thursday, August 26, 2021 with the first route being Kisumu-Nairobi.
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