The Ministry of Defence will import modern equipment to help the Kenya Defence Forces in teh war against terrorism.
Defence Cabinet Secretary Aden Mohamed on Wednesday said the Kenya Kwanza administration promised that they are going to modernize the KDF, Air Force, Army, Navy, the special forces and cyber security.
“I want to tell Kenyans that by December, we will have very protected modernized equipment arriving in our country so that our teams battling Al Shabaab will never be victims of IEDs and all other small choices of weapons that the terror group uses,” CS Duale said in an interview on Citizen TV.
The CS further noted that Kenya has the capability to deter and protect Kenyans, and that the government’s goal is to make sure that it not only Kenyans in the country safe but also deal with Al Shabaab and all terror networks inside Somalia.
“I should not be in this job if we will not succeed in the war against Al Shabaab. We will succeed, I have no other job, that is why you don’t see me in the devolution conference,” Duale said.
This comes amidst several terror attacks that have claimed KDF soldiers riding in pick up trucks and lorries that have hit IEDs in Northeastern region, Lamu and inside Somalia.
For example, on June 18 this year, three KDF soldiers were killed, and more than 10 others injured when their vehicle ran over an IED in coastal Lamu county, along the Pandaguo route, near the vast Boni forest. The KDF soldiers had been sent to rescue police officers who were conducting routine patrols when their own vehicle ran over an explosive. Over a dozen KDF and police were injured in that attack.
This was just days after eight KDF soldiers were killed in a similar attack in Garissa County in Northeastern region in an attack security chiefs believe was undertaken by Al Shabaab terrorists.
Asked when Kenya would withdraw from Somalia, Duale said KDF is in Somalia under the UN and AU framework and the drawdown has started and will withdraw by December 2014.
“We are coming out of Somalia because the UN, AU and Somali government felt they have generated enough force. Their Somali national army is ready to protect their country. Why taxpayers are funding KDF is primarily to protect the sovereignty and territorial integrity of our country. We are not in Somalia as KDF, we are part of a multinational UN, AU force that graduated from AMISOM to ATMIS,” Duale said.
