When Mzee Jomo Kenyatta took over from the British, the Kenya’s defense wholly relied on the British for military and intelligence support. But immediately after independence, Mzee quickly transformed the Kenya Army Infantry into a formidable force that was revered in East Africa. That how he managed to pull a kick in abdomen of Shifts out of Kenya’s Northern Frontier. Just like his father, Uhuru has endeared himself to men in military by deliberately raising the bar of Kenya Defense Forces in the last ten years.
However, the seed to trust the military was planted after the uncoordinated response to the September 2013 Westgate attack in Nairobi led to the loss of more than 70 lives.
Authorities’ poor response to the siege brought the country’s preparedness under sharp scrutiny and sparked transfers of security chiefs, the enactment of the controversial Security Laws (Amendment) Act 2014 and the establishment of a Multi-Agency Taskforce (MAT) to help security agencies share intelligence and improve government responses to national threats.
Today, Uhuru has pulled out the military out of barracks for public service. This opened up a floodgate of appointment of former spies and retired military men as heads of key government parastatals, some of which were on the verge of collapse. Case in point Kenya Meat Commission(KMC). They have also taken up lucrative top positions in DPP, Kenya Prisons, EACC, KWS, NSSF, NIS and the popular NMS. This has even elicited public outcry especially the human rights organizations who termed the appointments as “militarizing the public sector”.
NAIROBI METROPOLITAN SERVICES(NMS)
The creation of NMS generated a lot of public debate and even court cases. He established the body to literally take over a city that was in total mess. He appointed Kenya Airforce Lt-Gen Badi, who he later co-opted to the Cabinet to fast-track improvement of health care, transport and public works within a period of 24 months. It has been credited for the implementation of the Nairobi rail commuter system, setting up 24 hospitals, improved water supply in informal settlements, professionalised county council policing, and streamlining garbage collection.
KENYA WILDLIFE SERVICE(KWS)
In 2019 , President Kenyatta appointed former Navy officer Brig John Waweru to lead reforms at the Kenya Wildlife Services. This has yielded fruits especially with reduced cases of poaching. KWS also conducted national Wildlife Census in 2021. Kenya has 36,280 elephants, 897 black rhinos, 842 white rhinos, two northern rhinos, 2,589 lions, 5,189 hyenas and 1,160 cheetahs. The census results on the population of other iconic species included 41,659 buffalo, 13,530 Maasai giraffes, 121,911 common zebras, 2,649 grevy’s zebras and 57,813 wildebeest.
ARDHISASA
KDF Officers were deployed at the Ministry of Lands to spearhead the digitisation of land records under the Joint National and Resource Mapping that developed the ArdhiSasa digital platform to speed up land transactions. This fast-tracked issuing of title deeds across the country, which has helped the Ministry of Education map out schools, and the Ministry of Transport identify road reserves. KFS established encroached forest reserves in the country and established a system that maps out the location of Kenya’s minerals to protect them from theft.
KENYA MEAT COMMISSION(KMC)
President Kenyatta transferred the Kenya Meat Commission from the Ministry of Agriculture to that of Defence, placing it under Brig James N Githaga. Today, KMS is exporting meat to the Gulf as farmers reap big from the reforms.
NATIONAL AIR SUPPORT
National Air Support Department, a multi-agency unit that was placed under the Ministry of Defence to coordinate all government aircraft and services, including the National Police Air Wing, KWS, Kenya Electricity Transmission Company and Kenya Forest Service aircraft and maintenance following a string of accidents that claimed lives.
REFURBISHMENT OF UHURU GARDENS
KDF was also deployed to secure Uhuru Gardens, which was already grabbed, and refurbish it into a modern-day facility.
MILITARY FACILITIES
The establishment of Isiolo Level 4 facility was strategic to help provide healthcare services to serving military personnel, veterans and their families in Isiolo, Marsabit, Mandera, Wajir, Meru, Laikipia and Samburu counties.
At the same time, the government has spent billions of shillings to establish the National Communication and Surveillance System and for the construction of the National Forensics Laboratory.
There has also been heavy expenditure on surveillance cameras in major cities to boost intelligence gathering.
Established under the National Intelligence Service Act (2012), the NIS performs three functions, namely to gather and analyse intelligence and to advise the government accordingly on national security threats based on that intel. NIS gathers intelligence on three fronts; domestic, foreign and counterintelligence.
KDF opened the Military Intelligence (MI) Corps headquarters in Nairobi.
Globally, modern military operations are dependent on the provision of precise and well-timed intelligence. While the MI corps constitutes a small fraction of the army personnel, its contribution influences the work of the entire military and its units.
PENCHANT LOVE FROM UHURU (CIC)
President Uhuru government came to power two years after KDF had crossed over to Somalia to pursue Al Shabaab fighters in the Operation Linda Nchi.
It costs about Sh7,000 to keep a soldier in Somalia per day, or Sh210,000 per month. This money caters for their food, transport and medical expenses. With about 4,000 KDF troops in Somalia, the country spends more than Sh10 billion to maintain the soldiers fighting the Al Shabaab war. This is excluding emergency and other miscellaneous costs, making Operation Linda Nchi a costly undertaking.
More than 10 years later, there is no sign of withdrawal from Somalia by Kenyan troops that are also part of the Africa Transition Mission in Somalia, formerly Africa Union Mission to Somalia (Amisom).
UHURU INCREASED MILITARY BUDGET
With this backdrop, Uhuru decided increase budget allocation. Cumulatively, Kenya has spent more than Sh1 trillion on the country’s defence and intelligence personnel, and the modernisation of equipment and facilities.
In seven years alone between 2015 and 2022, the budget allocation for NIS has grown by 130 percent, from Sh20.1 billion in the 2015/2016 financial year to Sh46.1 billion in the current financial year.
During to this period, the budget for Defence has bulged from Sh92.3 billion to now Sh128.4 billion, a 38.5 percent increase.
Data from the World Bank shows that Kenya’s expenditure on the military grew by 40 percent in just five years between 2014 and 2019.
Finally, as he retires after 10 years, President Kenyatta will leave behind the best-funded military and intelligence services in the history of the country, outdoing his predecessors.
Will the incoming administration scale up where he has left? Will Ruto regime inculcate a hybrid public service that borrows heavily on expertise from private sector, multinationals or academia? Time will tell!
Also read Ruto Presidency
