Nairobi - Kenya's Minister for Roads Kipkalya Kones and an assistant minister died Tuesday when the light aircraft they were travelling in crashed near the Masai Mara game reserve in western Kenya, a government spokesman said. "I can confirm that minister Kipkalya Kones and assistant minister Lorna Laboso died, as well as a bodyguard and the pilot," Salim Lone told Deutsche Presse-Agentur dpa.
Lorna Laboso was assistant minister in the Ministry for Home Affairs.
Both ministers, members of Prime Minister Raila Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement (ODM), were appointed in April as part of a grand coalition aimed at ending months of post-election violence.
"Our country has lost leaders of immense potential in their prime with a promising future," President Mwai Kibaki said in a statement.
Contact with the plane, which was taking the officials to Kericho in the Rift Valley area for parliamentary by-elections, was lost around 40 minutes after take-off.
Police said the plane crashed near the town of Narok, several hundred kilometres west of Nairobi.
A police spokesman said that the cause of the crash was being probed, although weather conditions were reportedly bad.
Five by-elections were due to take place Wednesday in a poll seen as a test of a coalition that has shown clear signs of tension in its few short months of existence.
Former UN secretary general Kofi Annan brokered the deal that brought together Odinga's ODM and Kibaki's Party of National Unity (PNU) following months of violence.
Some 1,500 people died in clashes between members of tribes affiliated to the parties after Odinga claimed December's presidential elections were stolen from him.
Two of the by-elections are aimed at replacing lawmakers who were shot dead, while another two are to fill seats left vacant after the violence prevented the results from being announced.
The final seat was vacated when Kenneth Marende gave up his seat to become parliamentary speaker.
In a sign of the mistrust between the two sides, Kenyan blogs were quickly awash with ODM supporters speculating that the PNU had assassinated the officials.
