The Kenya Army Paratroopers are a Special Forces within the Kenya Defence Forces that conducts very highly coordinated and covert operations. They are the ‘secret weapon’ of the KDF seeing as very little is known about them or their operations. They are commonly referred to as the ‘green Berets’ due the color of the beret they wear.
All and any record information of their training, activities or missions are classified and can only be accessed by officers with very high ranking in the military. More often than not only a handful of people are aware of their missions.
Members of the Kenya Army Paratroopers have been sworn to secrecy and exercise the highest level discipline of any disciplined force evidenced by the scanty information about them in the mainstream media.
Historically, the paratroopers undertake very crucial and sensitive missions; they were used as presidential escort for the then President, Daniel Moi in the aborted 1982 Coup d’e Tat and notably the 3rd president Mwai Kibaki’s Aide de Camp was a green beret. They have been credited with playing a huge role in the recapture of Kismayo in the Operation Linda Nchi.
See also: Kenya Rifles Battalion; Milestones Achieved Historically
The mission of the Kenya Army Paratroopers is “to execute airborne operations in order to counter both external and internal threats.”
Their vision is to “have an airborne unit deeply rooted in professionalism and certain of its ability to fight, win land battles and execute airborne operations.”
The Kenya Army Paratroopers do not have the conventional image of the regular KDF troops they are highly trained and have the ability to be smooth and swift in their movement and are often multilingual. They are not combat shy or otherwise soft in the execution of their operations both in conventional and unconventional war.
The Kenya Army Paratroopers are all rounded as they collect their own intelligence and share it with other agencies and predict patterns and neutralize any imminent threat posed either domestically or externally on the nation’s security.
See also: ‘Security In Your Hands’ Key In Fighting Terror, Kenyan Security Agencies Say
They receive their training alongside some of the most competent Special Forces units globally; the UK- Special Air Service (SAS), Israel- Sayaret Matkal and the USA-US Rangers. They train in mountain and rough terrain warfare as well as crude survival tactics that help them think on their feet and improvise. Their training is said to be the harshest kind of training any human can go through characterized by great risk and harsh conditions.
Their competence that is mainly draws inspiration from their training where they are trained to ‘think like terrorist and would be terrorists’. This kind of thinking enables them to empathize with any situation they are in as well being in sync with the threat if not a set ahead.
The Kenya Army Paratroopers are very successful in all the high risk infiltration operations due to the covert manner under which they operate and the commitment and devotion cultivated among the troops.
