History
The Kenya Air Force was formed on 1 June 1964, soon after independence, with the assistance of the United Kingdom.
From 1979-1982 President Daniel arap Moi used Air Force F-5 fighter jets to escort his flights in and out of the country; later commentators have pointed out that there was no threat justifying the waste of fuel and the difficult and complex requirements of the escort mission.
After a failed coup by a group of Air Force officers on August 1, 1982, the Air Force was disbanded. Air Force activity was reconstituted and placed under tighter army control as the 82 Air Force. The Air Force regained its independent status in 1994. Currently it is a professional force with F-5 upgrade and procurement underway (10 F-5E, 2 F-5F, and 3 F-5EM from Jordan).
On April 10, 2006 a KAF Harbin Y-12 crashed near Marsabit with 17 on board, of whom 14 died. It was carrying several local and national politicians; Bonaya Godana, a former minister, was among the casualties. The pilot in command was Major David Njoroge.
There has been a controversy over the purchase of used F-5 jets from Jordan, which were shipped to Kenya and assembled locally.
Read more about this topic: Kenya Air Force
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“The custard is setting; meanwhile
I not only have my own history to worry about
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Unfinished concepts that can never bring themselves to the point
Of being, with or without my help, if any were forthcoming.”
—John Ashbery (b. 1927)
“He wrote in prison, not a History of the World, like Raleigh, but an American book which I think will live longer than that. I do not know of such words, uttered under such circumstances, and so copiously withal, in Roman or English or any history.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“Spain is an overflow of sombreness ... a strong and threatening tide of history meets you at the frontier.”
—Wyndham Lewis (1882–1957)