@intel, wewe noma. I think the US$ 740m price tag includes Su30 platforms, aircraft combat weaponry, pilot/tech training, spares, other ground weapons, and of course not forgeting a fat kickback....

[quote=Intelligentsia]@Rahatupu,
they are modernising.Quietly.
@Simonkabz, I believe some of the Sukhoi's have already been delivered; M7 arm-twisted the Ug. Parliment into rubber-stamping the very inflated purchases of these 4th generation fighters.
It will be violating Kenyan airspace but I don't put it beyond M7 to send the fighters travelling at Mach 2-plus streaking across Kenyan terriory to run sorties against Al-Shabaab in support of since Ug troops in AMISOM in Somalia who can now be able to call in air cover...
BTW, a Sukhoi such as this costs about USD 54m (say KShs 4.5b at KShs/USD 83)enough to pay for our Free Prim. Edu budget for a year...ha!

According to the latest data from the Stockholm Institute of International Peace Research Institute annual database, and its Military Balance report, Kenya has the smallest army in the region:

Eritrea - has 201,750 troops
DR Congo -151,251
Ethiopia - 38,000
Sudan - 190,300
Uganda -45,000
Rwanda - 33,000
Tanzania - 27,000
KENYA - 24,000
Burundi at 17,000 (figures from Burundi, though, indicate its army is 29,000 strong).

Despite that, Kenya trumps all these countries in defence spending, at $735 million annually and rising. This is equivalent to 2.1 per cent of Kenya’s $35 billion GDP. Analysts say most of this money has gone to upgrading military capability — which was becoming obsolete — and force readiness ....

E.A's Quiet Arms Race.

http://www.theeastafrica.../-/o3915fz/-/index.html[/quote]


the in formation about the number of troops is incorrect.Though kenya has fewer troops than its neighbours,it does not have 27,000,this is a conservative figure rather than real.

Also,it does not pay to have a bloated resource who hardly get some decnt pay by month end eg Uganda UPDF private gets a average of Ksh 5,000 compared to kenya Armay Private at Ksh 35,000.

You can have the numbers but quality be an issue.

Interesting discussion - when I saw the list by @intelligentsia showing the number of troops in Eastern African nations, I recalled a Sudanese Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) map I saw. And for those that have mentioned Egypt, River Nile, Russia, China, Oil, Water, etc - you are on point.

The Southern Sudan deal was VERY difficult to broker owing to interests of more than a dozen countries - some of them outside Africa.

See the PDF here - http://publicintelligenc...ve-peace-agreement-map/

(click download PDF - Not the first graphic - that is more of a preview).

I hope you have a 17" or 19" screen for its rather broad - but its mind boggling knowing which interests orbit around Southern Sudan and also the history of the people around the region....

Any African army would not be a thread to even the fire brigade of an Austrian mountain village.
As long as African people suffer from poverty, diseases and lack of affordable education, spending funds on technically slimmed down fighter planes is in my opinion just obscene.