East African Community launches joint military training

Kenya's Defence Cabinet Secretary Raychelle Omamo on Friday launched joint field training for over 2,000 military officers from East African Community (EAC) member states in Kwale County at the coast.

The one-week exercise aims at training the officers in planning and conducting peace support operations, disaster management, counter-terrorism and counter-piracy.

Speaking during the launch of the exercise, called "Ushirikiano Imara 2016" at the Matuga School of Government, Ms Omamo said the region shares the same history and culture and also has the same aspirations for peace, security and prosperity.

A key driver

She noted that the excellent cooperation between EAC defence forces was a key driver of regional integration.

“This training exercise is aimed at enhancing the participant’s capacity in collectively addressing the emerging complex security challenges confronting our region,” she said.

The Director-General of customs and trade at the East Africa Community, Mr Peter Kiguta, said participants were trained on the EAC protocol on operations in defence affairs.

The challenges

He added that the exercise was in line with a series of similar operations conducted in different EAC member states, with the last edition having taken place in Burundi in 2014.

“I would like to wish the participants a very successful exercise and also ask them to take the training very seriously considering the challenges we are facing,” he said.