Kenya boosts war against terror with Sh1b drone

The war against Al Shabaab will go a notch higher when Kenya receives the Sh1 billion drone it has ordered from the US.

News about the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV), popularly known as a drone, was made public by the US Department of Defence, according to Flightglobal, a website.

A similar delivery will be made to Cameroon.

Fifty per cent of the work on each contract will be carried out in Kenya, and will see the delivery of analogue medium wave infra-red ScanEagle UAVs, launch and recovery equipment, ground control stations, Insitu video exploitation systems and ground support equipment.

Kenya will also acquire a one mark 4 launcher, two full mission training devices and spares kits.

The pilot-less aircraft will enable Kenyan security organs conduct real time surveillance on Al Shabaab.

It can also also be used to execute guided attacks on enemies, track their communication and foil any plans for attacks.

The terror group has been blamed for many attacks in Kenya and Somalia where scores of Kenya Defence Forces personnel were killed during an attack on their camp recently.

Terrorists have recently attacked several Kenyan towns including Mombasa, Lamu, Garissa, Mandera, Wajir and Nairobi leaving a trail of destruction.

The ScanEagle is currently used in several countries including Britain, Australia, Iraq, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Pakistan, Singapore and The Netherlands.

Kenya has about 4,000 troops in the 22,000-strong African Union force which is battling Al Shabaab in Somalia.

Last month, Kenya police acquired armoured personnel carriers for police officers.

The 30 vehicles will be shared out between Administration Police and the General Service Unit to help in the fight on terror and other organised crime.

It is not clear how much was spent to acquire the fleet.

Among the priority areas for deployment of the carriers is Lamu where police have suffered losses from Al Shabaab attacks.

Meanwhile, President Uhuru Kenyatta was in Djibouti yesterday for an Amisom meeting aimed at reviewing the mission's operations in Somalia.