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
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“We don’t know when our name came into being or how some distant ancestor acquired it. We don’t understand our name at all, we don’t know its history and yet we bear it with exalted fidelity, we merge with it, we like it, we are ridiculously proud of it as if we had thought it up ourselves in a moment of brilliant inspiration.”
—Milan Kundera (b. 1929)
“I believe that history might be, and ought to be, taught in a new fashion so as to make the meaning of it as a process of evolution intelligible to the young.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The whole history of civilisation is strewn with creeds and institutions which were invaluable at first, and deadly afterwards.”
—Walter Bagehot (1826–1877)