ANOTHER EXPOSE THAT KENYA BOUGHT REAL JUNKS FOR ITS AIRFORCE.

This story has come up at the worst time for the Kenyan military establishment.
http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/InsidePage.php?id=2000021374&cid=4&ttl=Kenya%27s%20%27new%27%20fighter%20jets%20cannot%20take%20off

The Kenyan president His Excellency Hon Mwai Kibaki flanked by his Chief of general staff General Jeremiah Kianga.

The Kenya armed forces recently managed to stage to the world a dazzling military display on August 27th 2010 that was seen as very crucial in laying to rest the various scandals that have featured since the Kibaki regime came to power.



Kenyans   remember  the famous  Anglo leasing  saga which involved  the then finance  and defence and security ministers( Mr MWIRARIA and MURUNGARU) who are staunch allies of the president.These two were said to have sanctioned suspect deals involving suspicious  military purchases which to date have yet to be resolved.

Soon afterwards the Kenya air force junk purchase story came up.
This has featured in all manner of discussions on blogs across the Internet, news media,and  open discussions by Kenyans  all over the globe about the merits of this purchase which looked  like a good deal but with serious questions as to why Kenya should purchase used second hand fighter  jets from Jordan in the first place.

The saga of the pirated soviet made T72 tanks is still fresh in the minds and to date experts believe these tanks were not for Kenya but were on their Way to South Sudan.

To  date we  have blogs pounding away on the subject which refuses to die out since  mid 2008.
More recently  the South African sourced military armoured personnel carriers  scandal (APC) has come up and  this has now lead to the wider public questioning whether our country's military is really up to the  task when purchasing hardware using tax payers money or it is simply a conduit for some unscrupulous Wheeler dealers to  enrich themselves.

Now is  the  time  the Kenyan government  carried  a true audit of this kind of activity and also show  why  since  the mid 1990s Kenya has not been very transparent in its military procurement dealings before the press and the newly assertive parliament comes up  with more  revelations of alleged corruption and suspect public spending scandals from the military or elsewhere within government.

Now  is time the Kenyan public procurement system  got rid of those middle men who are  doing this and instead deal with foreign governments directly when sourcing for expensive military hardware.

Kenya  is  in a very  unstable region where the Kenyan public is  under constant threat from terror and indeed Kenya has   suffered two  or more hits by terror groups,whereby the Kennan authorities cannot afford to be complacent or laid back when  it comes to the sensitive nature of security and military procurement activity.
Kenya has a very ambitious neighbour, Uganda who are doing their best to better their military in direct relation to our posture. and have shown signs that they are moving ahead faster than we can match them.
They have the money coming very soon from the recently found oil and gas fields.

Kenya is  a front line state on the global war on terror and therefore cannot afford to be cheated and its  hard earned money sent to waste by such reportedly suspect military purchases of sub-standard hardware.

This kind of activity nonetheless places Kenya  at risk if proven to be true and there fore the military needs to move fast and address these issues quickly rather than dismissing the reports as fabricated.