Uganda vs. Kenya
Military
| Uganda | Kenya | |
|---|---|---|
| Military branches | Uganda People's Defense Force (UPDF): Land Forces, Air Forces, Marine Forces, Special Forces Command, Reserve Force (2021) | Kenya Defence Forces: Kenya Army, Kenya Navy, Kenya Air Force (2021) note: the National Police Service includes a paramilitary General Service Unit |
| Military service age and obligation | 18-25 years of age for voluntary military duty (must be single, no children); 9-year service obligation (2019) | no conscription; 18-26 years of age for male and female voluntary service (under 18 with parental consent; upper limit 30 years of age for specialists, tradesmen, or women with a diploma; 39 years of age for chaplains/imams), with a 9-year obligation (7 years for Kenyan Navy) and subsequent 3-year re-enlistments; applicants must be Kenyan citizens (2020) |
| Military expenditures - percent of GDP | 2.1% of GDP (2019) 1.4% of GDP (2018) 1.5% of GDP (2017) 1.6% of GDP (2016) 1.4% of GDP (2015) | 1.3% of GDP (2019) 1.2% of GDP (2018) 1.3% of GDP (2017) 1.3% of GDP (2016) 1.3% of GDP (2015) |
| Military - note | the UPDF, which is constitutionally granted seats in parliament, is widely viewed as a key constituency for MUSEVENI; it has been used by MUSEVENI and the NRM to break up rallies, raid opposition offices, and surveil rival candidates; during the 2020 election cycle, senior UPDF officer said that the military would not obey a non-NRM political leader the UPDF has conducted operations in the Democratic Republic of the Congo against a Congo-based Ugandan rebel group, the Allied Democratic Forces (ADF), which was designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by the US State Department in March 2021 as the Islamic State of Iraq and ash-Sham in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (ISIS-DRC; see the Terrorist Group Appendix); beginning in 2012, the UPDF also led regional efforts to pursue the Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), a small, violent group of Ugandan origin that conducted widespread attacks against civilians in much of Central Africa; the UPDF withdrew from the mission in 2017 after declaring that the LRA no longer posed a security threat Uganda intervened in the South Sudan civil war in 2013-2016 and UPDF forces have clashed with South Sudanese forces along the border as recently as 2020 | the Kenya Coast Guard Service (established 2018) is under the Ministry of Interior, but led by a military officer and comprised of personnel from the military, as well as the National Police Service, intelligence services, and other government agencies (2020) |
| Military and security service personnel strengths | information varies; approximately 45-50,000 troops, including about 1,000-1,500 air and marine personnel (2021) | the Kenyan Defense Forces (KDF) are comprised of approximately 24,000 personnel (20,000 Army; 1,500 Navy; 2,500 Air Force) (2020) |
| Military equipment inventories and acquisitions | the UPDF's inventory is mostly older Russian/Soviet-era equipment with a limited mix of more modern Russian- and Western-origin arms; since 2010, the leading suppliers of arms to the UPDF are Russia and Ukraine (2020) | the KDF's inventory traditionally carried mostly older or second-hand Western weapons systems, particularly from France, the UK, and the US; however, since the 2000s it has sought to modernize and diversify its imports; suppliers since 2010 include China, France, Italy, Jordan, Serbia, South Africa, Spain, and the US (2020) |
| Military deployments | 6,200 Somalia (AMISOM); 620 Somalia (UNSOM); 250 Equatorial Guinea (Jan 2021) | 3,650 Somalia (AMISOM) (2021) |
Source: CIA Factbook
