Military of Kenya |
|
---|---|
Service branches |
Kenya Army Kenya Air Force Kenya Navy |
Leadership | |
Commander-in-Chief | President Uhuru Kenyatta |
Cabinet Secretary for Defence | Raychelle Omamo |
Chief of Defence Forces | KDF General Samson Mwathethe |
Manpower | |
Military age | 18 |
Active personnel | 24,120 |
Expenditures | |
Budget | $503,000,000 (FY2012) |
Percent of GDP | 5.3% (FY2012) |
Industry | |
Domestic suppliers | Kenya Ordnance Factories Corporation |
Foreign suppliers |
United States United Kingdom Russia Ukraine South Africa France Germany |
Related articles | |
History |
Second World War (as King's African Rifles) (1939-45) Malayan Emergency (1948-60) Mau Mau Revolt (1952-60) Shifta War (1963–67) Mount Elgon insurgency (2005-08) Operation Linda Nchi (2011-12) War in Somalia (2012–present) |
The Kenya Defence Forces are the armed forces of the Republic of Kenya. The Kenya Army, Kenya Navy, and Kenya Air Force comprise the national Defence Forces. The current Kenya Defence Forces were established, and its composition laid out, in Article 241 of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya; the KDF is governed by the Kenya Defence Forces Act of 2012. The President of Kenya is the commander-in-chief of all the armed forces.
The military is regularly deployed in peacekeeping missions around the world. Further, in the aftermath of the national elections of December 2007 and the violence that subsequently engulfed the country, a commission of inquiry, the Waki Commission, commended its readiness and adjudged it to "have performed its duty well." Nevertheless, there have been serious allegations of human rights violations, most recently while conducting counter-insurgency operations in the Mt Elgon area and also in the district of Mandera central.
Kenya’s military, like many government institutions in the country, has been tainted by corruption allegations. Because the operations of the military have been traditionally cloaked by the ubiquitous blanket of "state security", the corruption has been less in public view, and thus less subject to public scrutiny and notoriety. This has changed recently. In what are by Kenyan standards unprecedented revelations, in 2010, credible claims of corruption were made with regard to recruitment and procurement of Armoured Personnel Carriers. Further, the wisdom and prudence of certain decisions of procurement have been publicly questioned.
The Manoj between 1896 and 1900 saw the East African Rifles deployed in a number of campaigns in line with British colonial policies. In collaboration with Major Cunningham's Uganda Rifles, expeditions were organized against the Nandi who put up a strong resistance. It was not until 1906 that they were subdued. Another one in 1900 commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Hatch, Commandant of the East African Rifles, followed this. Two medals were issued after these expeditions namely "1898" and "Jubaland 1900".