Kenya and UK sign new five-year defence pact

Kenya and the UK have signed a five-year Defence Cooperation Agreement (DCA) to tackle shared threats across East Africa.

The two countries signed the agreement in a side event during President Uhuru Kenyatta’s three-day Guest of Government visit to the UK.

Kenya’s Cabinet Secretary for Defence, Dr Monica Juma, and UK Defence Secretary Ben Wallace, signed the new DCA on Tuesday evening at the Ministry of Defence offices in London.

The agreement will anchor the defence priorities between the two nations over the next five years.

The signing of the DCA comes six months after the two defence secretaries met in Nairobi, agreeing on a refreshed Security Compact to deepen wider stability

and security cooperation, part of the Kenya-UK strategic partnership.

“Kenya has long been our defence partner of choice in East Africa and, in a more uncertain world, we will continue to stand shoulder-to-shoulder as we tackle the threats of tomorrow,” Mr Wallace said.

“The framework underpinning this strategic relationship is the Defence Cooperation Agreement which has become an invaluable tool for enhancing the competencies of our defence forces. Overall our cooperation continues to significantly improve the ability of our forces to operate effectively in high-threat environments,” Dr Juma said.

Under the current agreement, the UK has provided an annual training of over 1,100 Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers, with courses in the UK, or with UK military training teams in Kenya.

Further training has also been provided through the UK-funded Counter-Improvised Explosive Device (C-IED) Wing at the Humanitarian Peace Support School (HPSS) in Embakasi.

Since its opening in 2016, over 2,000 military and police from 22 countries have been trained in C-IED skills and 40 C-IED instructors developed, significantly improving the ability of African Union (AU) forces to operate effectively in high-threat environments, including against Al Shabaab.

Olajumoke Adeleke/EA