The Kenya Defence Forces’ current spending hit Sh97.2 billion ($963.5 million) last year from $933 million a year earlier.
Despite their lower staff costs, Ethiopia commands a bigger force of 185,500 personnel.
Uganda’s army size is nearly twice the size of Kenya's but has lower personnel costs.
Kenya’s military expenditure on salaries and operations stands higher than its regional counterparts despite having the smallest personnel count, a new global report shows.
The Kenya Defence Forces’ (KDF) current spending hit Sh97.2 billion ($963.5 million) last year from $933 million a year earlier, according to data from Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri).
Kenya has 24,150 military personnel. At $963.5 million, Nairobi’s military spending is more than the combined army budgets for neighbouring Ethiopia ($488 million or Sh49 billion) and Uganda ($445 million).
Despite their lower staff costs, Ethiopia commands a bigger force of 185,500 personnel or seven times more than Kenya’s while Uganda’s army size is nearly twice the size (45,000 personnel).
This signals higher remuneration for the Kenyan military.
“Figures for these countries are for current spending only (excluding capital spending) and do not include spending on paramilitary forces,” Sipri said in the report released Friday.
Defence is the only segment whose employment detail including staff pay is not provided by the government’s Economic Survey.
The Sipri report shows that Tanzania stands behind Kenya in the region’s military spending order, having spent $593 million (Sh59.8 billion) on its Defence, followed by Ethiopia and Uganda.
Nairobi’s military bill accounts for 1.2 per cent of the country’s gross domestic product (GDP) and 4.5 per cent of the total government spending.
Despite growing its budget, Kenya sharply cut its purchase of military weapons last year even as Uganda made a comeback to emerge the top spender on arms in East Africa. Kenya slashed its spending by half to Sh1.3 billion ($13 million) from Sh2.8 billion a year earlier.
Uganda ended its lull with its last year’s arms stockpile worth Sh1.8 billion, a departure from 2016 when it made nil purchase.
The Sipri report indicates that defence budget of the two leading economies in the continent stands at Sh363 billion ($3.6 billion) for South Africa and $1.6 billion (Sh161 billion) for Nigeria.
