F5 jets for Kenya

Press, 18 June 1976, Page 6

F5 jets for Kenya

NZPA-Reuter Nairobi The American Defence Secretary (Mr Donald Rumsfeld) left Nairobi today for Zaire after a two-day official visit to Kenya during which American officials said that there was agreement, in principle, for the United States to supply Kenya with 12 sophisticated F 5 jet fighter aircraft.

Mr Rumsfeld came to Nairobi from Brussels, making the first visit to Africa by a United States Defence Secretary. In Kinshasa he will have talks with President Mobutu. The deal is the largest of its kind ever reached between America and a Black African State. It will put Kenya on a footing with its neighbours, Somalia and Uganda, both of which have Soviet MiG-2155. Kenya was anxious to redress the arms imbalance in any case, but one of the factors which influenced the United States over the deal was the Soviet Union's influence in East and Central Africa. Apart from Somalia and Uganda in East Africa, Angola, in Central Africa, has large numbers of Soviet tanks and aircraft left over from the recent civil war. Kenya now has a small air force of 14 combat aircraft, mainly British Hawker Hunters and Strikemasters. Uganda, by comparison, has 48 combat aircraft nearly all MiGs, and Somalia has 52, also mostly MiGs.