wazi wazi @simonkabz
I love discussing military matters! Because that i hy most technologies are first applied before they revert to civilian use eg the radar. At about 13 yrs old I could instantly tell if a passing aircraft was kenyan airforce or foreign. the interest lives on after buying so many copies of Jane's Defence magazines!

Pity no uniformed soldiers or military buffs in wazuan.
I have interacted in the past with our army men & even airmen and learnt plenty both at MAB & out in the field.

to begin with, the Ugandans have not yet bought the 6 killer Sukhois, they are hoping to do so with cash from their oil fileds - na hawajaanza hata ku produce oil commercially. So the Sukhois landing after Ug. affording USD &1.2b is a fairly tall order for now...

secondly, the tanzanians already have the twin-tail 6 MIG-29s. The Sudanese too have this advanced fighter (Mig-29)...all these are top-of-the range fighers.Ethiopians & Eritreans also have advanced fighters (called 4th generational fighters. So guys we are living in a tough neighbourhood.

Kenya has F-5s and u recall it was all over military circles that we were importing some 15 F-5s from Jordan. They say they will be fitted with advanced avionics but the West's equivalent of our new threats is the F-16 (very costly). And we are going Chinese...

So all round us we are living with people with very serious air power ...it means Nbi is a sitting duck if our air defences are not upto the task. Plus our neighbours have more uniformed men...clearly we need a technological advantage to counter this.

There is a quiet arms race going on quietly within the region even in artillery power.

I hope our military planners are not sleeping. Kenya is the regional superpower and her investments are worth protecting at all costs. We have a neighbour with proven expansionist ambitions and when they start affording such dangerous toys as the Su-30 the geo-political balance in the region changes kabisaaa to our detriment..

The 45b kshs vote given to defence at last budget is the amt the military needs every yr for the next 5yrs or so so that we modernize our forces with latest technology (to counter our shortfall in numbers).
We don't have to buy expensive U.S. F-whateve models as there are more advanced fighters in the market such as the Swedish Gripen operated by S.A.

But make no mistake: we need to modernise, and fast.
The last time we did so majorly was during kenyatta's time.

Kenyan neighbours havent started to be hostile now. They have always been and will continue to be. Yet majority of our armed forces have retired from armed forces without participating in any combat. No major hostility since indepedence.

Its also important to note that Kenya is the diplomatic hub of the region as well. Hosting UNEP (Only one in Africa) comes with some degree of responsibility as well as benefits. Most of the western countries have their regional embassies in Nairobi.

However this doesnt mean we dont need to mordernise. We should, but the Vice of corruption is deep rooted in the DOD procurement.

Its about the waters of the Nile. Flexing muscles before Egypt decides to strike.
imagine striking Aswan High dam is Egypt launches a war?

Ugandan parliament approved a US$ 740m budget for the purchase of military hardware, including 8 Su30 MK2.

Air Superiority my foot while Turkanas are being slaughtered as a rite of passage by the Merilles of Ethiopia and Museveni invades Kenyan Islands on L.Victoria like I change my ngothas and the Al Shabaab rag tag militias talk down to our military like thy have no balls.The Kenyan Military should solve these before thinking about air superiority.

I have noted with concern the way UG goes about dominating Kenyans, and it looks like it was planned long time ago...the day Uganda sent military to L. Victoria and Baks did NOTHING!! I realised that they may be superior to us, and Baks knows that...the conspiracy theory was that M7 could do anything, otherwise he would expose some contribution during 2007/2008....he had arm-twisted our prezzo
UG has now began dominating us in football, and even one of the long distance running....our dominance is threatened! Our military guys need to go back to the drawing board, especially with the potential enemies superiority increasing by the day...UG military is involved in Somalia, and supposedly have more military men than Kenya...they are continuously "practicing" while in Mogadishu, what are we doing?

@Wabushes, no one refutes that, but security is paramount, you can build all that, and it is bombed in a day

While I agree to some of your statement,we also need to realise that our real enemies not UG and kenya wont go to war with UG anytime soon as long as they are located where they are in the africa map.They need us more that we need them and their economy depends on us
whether they discover oil or not.

I do agree that we need to heavily finance our military but this cannot be done when people are hungry and with the expensive constitution you people passed (I voted NO),it will be a tall order to move ahead with the scarce resources we have unless we also discover the black gold in Lake Turkana !!

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@Burning, we need Ugandans just as much as they need us, they are after all our largest trading partners. We cannot hold them hostage over the Mombasa, did you know that it takes far less days to transport a container from Port Elizabeth/Durban to Kampala than Msa-Kampala? The South Africans are aggressively wooing Ug to use Durban to export its oil. That we must invest heavily in our military cannot be gainsaid. We have a very thin military that could not decisively prevent the escalation of violence during the PEV period.

What must be done?

1. Mass recruitment into the military we need over 100,000 men and women. Ethiopia has the largest numbers in the region.
2. Modernize or military especially on the technological front.
3. Take a more proactive even confrontational approach in regional security matters e.g Somalia.
4. Project Kenya as a regional power not only economically but also militarily.

if those figures quoted are true,then for sure our military strategist are sound asleep.the fact that our past ministers of defence included the likes of njenga wananinchi karume,shows the seriousness of the situation.However one should note that despite the small number,our military is the most proffesional in the region.I have had the opportunity of visiting some military contingents in one peacekeeping mission and I can tell you our military contigent outshone the rest in terms of displine and proffesionalism