Kenya’s annual budget for military and spy operations has doubled in the five years the military has been fighting Al Shaabab militants in Somalia.
The Standard on Sunday has reviewed data from the National Treasury which show this year, the country will spend Sh124 billion on “national security” which comprises spending on the Kenya Defence Forces and the National Intelligence Service (NIS).
The annual budget for the military has ballooned from Sh45 billion in 2011 to Sh98 billion this year, while that of the NIS has grown from Sh13 billion in 2011 to Sh25 billion this year. Those familiar with the goings-on at the Department of Defence and the military barracks around the country told The Standard on Sunday, that the bulk of the money was going to the purchase of military hardware, state-of-the-art surveillance equipment and for increased training expenses for special regiments.
The National Treasury’s data shows that this year, the KDF will spend Sh81 billion on its operations, Sh15 billion on the “security modernisation programme” and the rest of the money on salaries and administrative costs at the Department of Defence headquarters in Nairobi. For the NIS, all that money is placed under one line item that reads “Headquarters, Field Services, Training School, and Liaison Office”.
Dr Simiyu Werunga, a security analyst familiar with Kenya’s security operations, said the modern equipment and hardware was a necessity for the KDF. It was the first military operation in foreign land, and perhaps, it jolted the military on the need to acquire modern equipment.
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Modernisation
As is the norm for military and intelligence spending, the government never gives the specific breakdown, presumably to keep the country’s enemies from knowing the strategic defence policies that Kenya is pursuing, he added.
“The military has undergone serious modernisation. We had to buy new equipment and even to upgrade what we had. This has happened to the aircraft, tanks, artillery pieces, and even the upgrade of the country’s electronic surveillance including drones,” said Dr Werunga, the Executive Director of the Africa Centre for Security and Strategic Studies.
News on the drone was the first disclosed when the US Department of Defence, in an announcement on September 29, 2015, revealed that Kenya will get a Sh1 billion drone (USD9.9 million).
The contract was for the “procurement of one ScanEagle unmanned aircraft system consisting of analog medium wave infra-red ScanEagle unmanned air vehicles, launch and recovery equipment, ground control stations, Insitu video exploitation systems and ground support equipment for the government of Kenya” – according to a copy of the contract announcement in our possession.
The deal was done under the Foreign Military Sales programme and the drone was built by the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division, Lakehurst, New Jersey. The delivery was scheduled for September this year, but The Standard on Sunday could not independently confirm that the drone had been delivered.
