A Kenya Air Force Huey helicopter crashed on Monday night, September 18, while on night patrol in Lamu County. The cause of the crash is still under investigation, but it is believed that all crew members and military personnel on board were killed.
The Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) released a statement expressing their condolences to the families of the victims.
In a separate announcement, the KDF announced that 10 soldiers and airmen have completed Kenya’s first-ever Joint Terminal Attack Controller (JTAC) Training, led by the United States.
The 12-week course aims to improve interoperability between the two countries and enhance Kenya’s ability to operate close air support and deconflict airspace.
The completion of the training is a significant milestone for Kenya’s military, as it marks a step towards greater collaboration with the United States in the area of national security.
JTAC training is a specialized course that teaches military personnel how to direct air support during combat operations. The training is essential for modern warfare, as it enables ground troops to call in air support to engage enemy targets with precision.
The course covers a range of topics, including target identification, communications, and airspace management.
The U.S.-led training program is part of a broader effort to strengthen the partnership between Kenya and the United States in the area of national security.
Not so long ago, before the SGR snaked its way across the Athi River, a company of soldiers is out and about in a routine training exercise.
A training exercise is not a walk in the park. By evening, the soldiers can barely walk. The body aches. The stomach rumbles and the throat is parched. The sun doesn’t play in these streets.
So, one evening after a long, rumbling trek, the squad stumbles into camp. The first stop is the kitchen area. Basically, a few trenches with a lit fire – huge boiling cauldrons.
Thankfully – there’s always a hot meal waiting.
Former Nairobi Governor Mike Sonko hanging out with military personnel (file image)
There’s a ton of Ugali. Lots of fried meat. It’s all laid out on tables, buffet-style. Just so you know, the military invented the buffet.
The starving squad digs in.
Then, each soldier crawls to their tent. If you haven’t been in a tent, it’s just an overpriced invite to spend a night in the open. No walls.
They slump into bed, military fatigues, soiled boots and all. A few, naturally, forget the little matter of washing hands after the dinner meat session.
Now, Athi River is home to loads of wildlife. In this story, marauding hyenas and wild dogs come into play.
They like military camps – loads of left over food – especially meat. A military camp is deathly silent in the dead of night. This is the time the scavengers rule. Packs run the length of the camp, sniffing for discarded morsels of food.
They have a keen sense of smell. They’ll even sniff meat-stained fingers.
That’s a first hand story, as told by a soldier whose fingers got gnawed off by a hyena in the plains of Athi River.
I suppose every kid wants to be a soldier at some point. And almost every other teen. Its glamorous, and enviable. As it is, not everyone makes the cut. And not everyone deserves the cut.
Because it’s a life of endless, thankless sacrifice.
Spending nights in waterlogged trenches – swatting angry mosquitoes. Camping for months in remote wastelands – no cellphone coverage.
Meeting and talking to the same people, every single day, for months on end. Eating the same meals, on clockwork.
At some point, you realise that you know your comrade more than you know your own spouse.
The constant travel for assignments and impromptu exercises have a toll on family life.
A soldier hardly ever attends family functions.
You’ll get a new born – but you don’t get to know of it. You have pitched camp in some forsaken dumpland without a single bar of nework.
Your favorite niece got married sometimes over Easter. When you finally get home on that short week off, you’ll be regaled with funny tales on how Uncle Njenga aced her dowry negotiations.
She fetched a few camels, over and above a tidy sum of currency. He was clearly the GOAT.
Except, the GOAT uncle had passed on a few weeks earlier. You didn’t hear of it. It hurts for a moment.
The KDF band in a practise session (file image)
It’s not all doom and gloom, though. It is really, loads of fun.
Fancy having the run of all the game parks. While travel nuts and wanderlusters pay kidneys and lungs for a few days in The Tsavo, you have camped the whole length of it.
If you camping, wash your hands after the meals. And do not let your hands hang off the bed as you sleep.
Thanks to a digital banking revolution, a soldier’s life is easier. It’s now just a simple login into banking platform on a basic mobile phone to solve all family financial obligations.
Co-op Bank has built an easy to use internet banking platform that’s been a favourite with soldiers.
It’s now easier for a travelling soldier to keep track of his family’s needs with Co-op Internet banking. The utility bills like power, water and other subscriptions are easily handled on the go.
Besides, it gets easier to operate a business.
Co-op Internet banking makes day-to-day biashara operations more efficient! It allows real-time account balances, Inter-account as well as interbank funds transfer and many other services.
Most KDF soldiers are banking Ki-pro na Co-op Internet Banking.
October 14th is the official KDF Day. Lots of respect to all the soldiers in active service, and the veterans.
Co-op Bank was once again the sole sponsor of this year’s Annual Kenya Defence Forces (AKDF) Cross-country Championships that took place on Friday 29th January, 2021 at Moi Airbase in Eastleigh, Nairobi.
The event happens every year in the month of January to enable KDF select its participants for the National, Africa and World Championship athletics events.
Gunner Kibiwott Kandie of Embakasi Garrison rips the tape to win the 10km Men’s Race at the KDF Annual Cross Country Championships.
The annual event was graced by the Cabinet Secretary for Defence Dr Monica Juma and the KDF top brass led by the Chief of the Defence Forces Gen. Robert Kibochi. The Director Retail and Business Banking at Co-op Bank William Ndumia attended as sponsors of the event.
This year’s event was the 40th Edition of the Cross-country Championship. KDF’s deep athletics talent pool was on display, with world-renown athletics featuring including the double World Champion in both the 5,000m and also Cross-country Hellen Obiri who was representing her Laikipia Air Base Team.
She won the 10 kilometre Women Cross-country race. Kibiwot Kandie of Embakasi Garrison won the men’s 10 kilometre Cross-country event.
Spte Joyce Chepkemoi of Laikipia Air Base, the 1st Runner’s Up in the 10km Women’s Race, just after Hellen Obiri of Moi Air Base.
Kawaha Barracks was crowned the overall winners, followed by Moi Airbase Nairobi and Thika team respectively.
Co-op Bank continues to strengthen the partnership with the KDF in grooming athletic talent within the force, which continues to produce world-beating talent in athletics.
Co-op Bank will continue to support this sport that is beloved by Kenyans, and which continues to earn the country tremendous glory and fame around the world in addition to inspiring millions to lead healthier lives.
Al Shabaab kill people all because they want a strict version of Islam, they oppose any form of Western Influences but behind the curtains Al-Shabaab fighters bury themselves in porn, alcohol and drugs.
Kenya Defence Forces (KDF) soldiers on Monday found pornographic videos, condoms, alcohol bottles, syringes and miraa during a raid in at an Al-Shabaab hideout in Boni forest, Lamu county.
KDF soldiers were on patrol in the expansive forest on Monday afternoon when they came across the abandoned Al-Shabaab camp. Apparently the terrorists fled in hurry after getting wind of KDF operation.
The Al-Shabaab militants forgot their personal effects including pornographic collection, laptop, shoes, clothes etc in the hurry to abandon their hideout.
The porn, alcohol and drugs may come as a shock to many people but the terrorist group is also know for kidnapping women and using them as sex slaves.
A few days before the the KDF raid, a woman who spent more than three years being tormented by the gang, recognized two men who gang-raped her when she saw their pictures splashed on mainstream media.
Islamic extremist terrorist groups having porn collections is not a new thing, US Navy SEALs also found Osama bin Laden’s porn collection during May 2nd 2011 raid that killed the Al-Qaeda leader.
When we are busy praying for the Kenyan defense force to remain safe due to some of the challenges they face as they serve the nation, a video certain video has surfaced online igniting anger among the Kenyan citizens.
The video shows three men wearing the KDF uniform shooting a man believed to be a fellow citizen with no mercy and in the background one can actually hear one of them speaking fluent Swahili – something that confirmed the soldiers are Kenyan.
Judging them position the man wearing green shorts and at shirt with no shoes on his feet it is easy to tell that he had surrendered but from how he was shot one would think he was armed with explosives or even a gun…but the video clearly shows how defenseless he looked.
From the video we can all tell that he received several shots and even after dying they kept pumping more bullets in his body. What’s more surprising is that the video was taken by one of the soldiers who might have shared it widely.
Kenyans on the other hand have been expressed their disgust towards the video and if anything, this must be one of the very few things we get to see as we all remain behind the curtain.
