Voca82forjustice
KENYA ARMY STEAL PAYCHECKS AND JOBS FROM DEAD AND JAILED KENYA AIR FORCE SOLDIERS
By: William James Mwangi.
One other important factor that saved the situation was that the plotters who commandeered the planes were not very conversant with the operations of the fighter jets and especially the ‘G’ effect. The fact that they (plotters) were too confused and fainted when the pilots performed aerobatics, gave the pilots the chance to drop the bombs on top of Mt.Kenya and not the City of Nairobi as they had been ordered.
When the planes landed at Nanyuki, it was assumed by the plotters that the bombing mission had taken place because no bombs were found in the aircrafts. However, what the plotters did not know is that the bombs were lying safely at the top of the mountain with the safety pins intact.
Only God knows the kind of devastation that the bombs would have caused to the city. It would have been turned into rubble making it the bloodiest period in Kenya’s history. Nairobi would have been no more and probably the capital city would have been relocated to a different site.
Unfortunately, the former Kenya Air Force officers and men whose discipline, sober calculation and conscience averted the bloodbath, later on became the victims of the system. They suffered torture and lengthy prison terms. However, it is important to note that the relationship between the Kenya Army and the Kenya Air Force was sour with the former claiming that the air force men were more educated than them and that they had better remuneration.
Whereas it took only an ID and physical fitness to enlist in the Kenya Army as a service man then, the air force was more thorough and only recruited professionals thus making the army to refer to it as the force of the elite. When the army was given the responsibility to quell the mutiny, it did it not as a duty but instead they took it personal. The army men went out of their way to hammer the men they thought were arrogant. In fact, rumor had it that the Kenya Army men were eyeing the Kenya Air Force jobs. The rumor however, turned out to be true for that is exactly what happened after the purge.
While there is no denying that there was discontent in the Kenyan armed forces then, the situation did not warrant a coup. Discontent was brought about by the KANU government which remunerated senior officers heavily but did absolutely nothing for the junior rank and file. In fact the government thought the best way to keep the military under its armpits was by giving out large tracts of land all over the country to senior military officers while it ignored the lower ranks.
There was a lot of mistreatment because of unchecked recruitment which resulted to soldiers being forced to live outside their designated barracks. No monetary compensation was given for transport and food that they were entitled to in the estates where they resided. A soldier’s salary was meager and could barely sustain an individual leave alone support families for those who were married.
The resultant consequence of the dismissal of over 1,500 well trained (both locally and abroad) manpower in the military field reflected heavily on the country’s economic situation. No 3rd world country can afford to discard such trained manpower in one swoop and again get fresh people from the villages without affecting negatively the economy of the country. VOCA’82 Welfare Association, a movement representing all the ex-Kenya Air Force soldiers who were sacked, jailed or died after the August 1, 1982 coup attempt is out to seek compensation for its members and their close relatives.
The author of this article does not claim to know all the details about the August 1, 1982 coup attempt and neither was he anywhere near the scene as the plot was hatched. However, as one of the victims, he feels duty-bound to reveal to Kenyans and the world the other side of the story. While much have been said for the last 29 years, there remains a lot of untold truth about how Kenya Air Force soldiers were blamed for the killings and mayhem that were committed by the Kenya Army soldiers against the airmen even after they were locked up in various penal institutions across the country.
The army men used the air force soldiers as scapegoats mainly to cover up for the atrocities that they committed against civilians. It is imperative to note that this continued even after all the Kenya Air Force soldiers had already been helplessly incarcerated under extremely tight security.
The Kenya Army, courtesy of the KANU government continued to spread hate and propaganda. The reason because they were aware that civilians held the Kenya Air Force with a lot of respect to the chagrin of the Kenya Army. Their intention was to portray the airmen as irresponsible soldiers capable of using weapons to scare civilians, kill and commit all sorts of criminal activities. The airmen knew that these were total lies. The ex-Kenya Air Force soldiers suffered and continues to hurt physically and emotionally and even death to some of them. In fact, a majority of them will never recover from the attendant trauma. Despite the airmen having no option but to accept the undeserved punishment which was handed to them the wrong way, the responsible senior Kenya Army officers never got punished for their actions then and even afterwards.
It can unreservedly be revealed that Kenya Army personnel stationed in the Department Of Defense (D.O.D.) paid themselves with the salaries belonging to incarcerated and dead ex-KAF soldiers. This writer stands to be challenged for even he did not get his July 1982 paycheck. Where did the money go?
However, it has been and will remain the ex-KAF soldiers' hope that justice will someday prevail and then, and only then shall JUSTICE BE OUR SHIELD AND DEFENDER.