Five members of the US Congress are urging the Kenyan government to reconsider a proposed sh43 billion purchase of 12 armed aircraft and related elements intended for use in Somalia against Al-Shabaab.
The five congressmen said in their letter to Ambassador Githae that L3 “has no experience converting agricultural aircraft into intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft with precision-strike capability.”
A different company with proven experience could provide Kenya with field-tested aircraft and related elements at a far lower price, the congressmen said.
“Spending sh43 billion of Kenyan national funds on aircraft that could be acquired for over sh20 billion less from a company that has years of past performance and an existing production line is not an optimal allocation of scarce defence dollars,” Ambassador Githae was told.
James Braid, a senior aide to Congressman Budd, said in an interview on Tuesday that the type of converted agricultural aircraft manufactured by IOMAX has been used to drop at least 2000 bombs on Islamic State targets in Yemen, Syria and Libya. Those attacks were carried out by the United Arab Emirates, which purchased 48 of the planes from IOMAX, Mr Braid noted.
[SIZE=5]Kickback Nation ! the family of Jomo is expecting a massive kick back from the deal they dont care were being sold crop dusters as airforce jets ![/SIZE]
The tenderpreneur culture is actually deeply entrenched in the developed nations political outfits than in developing countries. When you look at the people donating to the campaign kitty of various candidates like warren baffet etc you get the sense that they will always get something in return. Governments are just businesses.s
The deal hasn’t been shelved, the dotted line hasn’t been signed yet.
Exactly. Iko kitu inaitwa military-industrial complex-congressional triangle where these defense manufacturers open their industries in as many congressional districts as possible, then pressure the congresspeople to have government contracts awarded to them so that the people in those districts can have jobs and congresspeople can be funded by those companies and the cycle continues. When a company doesn’t get contracts, people lose jobs, unions lend their support to other candidates and the companies fund other candidates willing to play ball. It’s not that L3 technologies doesn’t have the know-how (it is worth $15bn in assets), IOMAX has been eating from this pot alone and wants to maintain the status quo.
Sio sisi tunacheswa, ni vita ya tenderpreneurs huko na huwa wameweka wanasiasa kwa mfuko. Either way, Kenya still benefits. It’s only a matter of whether needs and requirements will be met.
I’m not a fan of that family of thieves na anaenda nyumbani 8/8/17, lakini hapa sio hao wanataka kula, it is the american military industrial complex at work. It’s good to educate yourself on certain matters. These planes are to be modified to become intelligence surveillance and reconnaisance planes with air support capability. That is basically what drones do and these planes will do the same job at a much cheaper cost. In very many situations and mission profiles, jets are heavily disadvantaged. Even the americans themselves cannot replace the A-10 yet the F-35 was supposed to replace it. The A-10 was built in the 70’s and will to the earliest, be retired in 2025. It is just too good at its job, the F-15/16/18s cannot usurp its role.
Similarly, the F-5 is inadequate to do the job supposed to be done by those Air tractors.