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The Infantry units are the principal fighting arms of the Kenya Army. The primary mission of the Infantry formations is to fight and win land battles within area of operational responsibilities in the defence of the nation against land – based aggression, while the secondary mission is the provision of aid and support to civil authorities in the maintenance of order. In the early 1960s 3rd, 5th, and 11th Battalions of the King's African Rifles (KAR) were based at Nanyuki, Gilgil (seemingly in the same town as a British battalion) and Nairobi (Langata) in rotation.〔J.M. Lee, 'African Armies and Civil Order,' Studies in International Security, Institute for Strategic Studies, c.1969, 40.〕 Timothy Parsons writes: '..Kenyan political elites viewed the army as a potential source of political leverage. No party or ethnic group was willing to let its rivals gain a dominant position in the armed forces. As a result, veteran askaris worried that politically connected soldiers would replace them. Most of the "martial races" that eomprised the old colonial forces were not part of KANU, and many Kikuyu openly referred to the KAR as the "KADU army." In 1959, the Kalenjin, Kamba, Samburu, and Northern Frontier pastoral communities supplied approximately 77 percent of the total strength of the Kenyan KAR battalions.'〔Report on the EALF and the Kenya Regiment in 1959, by GOC EAC, KNA, LF/1/210; and Central Province Recruiting Safari, by Captain N.R. Pavitt, 1963, PRO/WO/305/1651, in Parsons, ('The Lanet Incident, 2–25 January 1964: Military Unrest and National Amnesia in Kenya' ), International Journal of Atrican Historical Studies Vol.40, Nol (2007), 60.〕 As the country prepared for independence in 1962–63 the National Assembly of Kenya passed a bill (Kenya Bills 1963) to amend the status of Kenyan military forces.〔http://www.go.ke〕 Accordingly, former KAR units of them were transformed into Kenyan military forces and the newly independent Kenyan Government was legally empowered to assign names to them. This took effect from the time of the independence ceremonies, midnight, 12 December 1963. Thus 3 KAR and 5 KAR became 3 Kenya Rifles and 5 Kenya Rifles. Army mutinies in Tanganyika and Uganda in January 1964 set the stage for the unrest that took place within the Kenya Rifles. Faced with many of the same problems that confronted Kenyan soldiers, Tanganyikan and Ugandan soldiers won improved pay and the dismissal of expatriate British officers by threatening their newly sovereign politicians with violence.〔Parsons, 2007, 61–62.〕 On the evening of 24 January 1964, the failure of the Kenyan Prime Minister to appear on television, where 11th Kenya Rifles junior soldiers had been expecting a televised speech and hoping for a pay rise announcement, caused the men to mutiny.〔Timothy Parsons, The 1964 Army Mutinies and the Making of Modern East Africa, 120.〕 Parsons says it is possible that the speech was only broadcast on the radio in the Nakuru area where Lanet Barracks, home of the battalion, was located. Kenyatta's government held two separate courts-martial for 43 soldiers. In the aftermath of the mutiny and following courts-martial, the 11th Kenya Rifles was disbanded.〔Parsons, The 1964 Army Mutinies, 161.〕 A new battalion, 1st Kenya Rifles, was created entirely from 340 Lanet soldiers who had been cleared of participation in the mutiny by the Kenyan Criminal Investigations Division (CID). ==Units== *1st Kenya Rifles Battalion – Nanyuki *3rd Kenya Rifles Battalion – Lanet Barracks, Nakuru *5th Kenya Rifles Battalion – Gilgil *7th Kenya Rifles Battalion – Langata Barracks, Nairobi. Previously 7 KR was located at Gilgil in a camp formerly held by British troops. The first task of the unit was to clean and repair the camp. Moved to Langata in 1973. *9th Kenya Rifles Battalion – formed September 1979, with in-postings from 3, 5, and 7 KR. At Moi Barracks near Eldoret town. Took part in Exercise Natural Fire.〔For more on Natural Fire, see and Prados, 'Pentagon Games.'〕 *15th Kenya Rifles Battalion – the Battalion, commonly abbreviated 15 KR, a.k.a. 'One five', is the seventh infantry battalion and the youngest infantry unit in the Kenya Army.〔Kenya Yearbook 2010〕 The unit was conceived as Namibian-bound, Kenya's contingent that was on a UN peace keeping mission, c.1990. Formed 13 March 1989. On return from the mission the unit was constituted to a fully fledged infantry unit that was going to be based in the coastal city of Mombasa at the Mariakani Barracks. Located at Nyali beach, Mombasa.〔Yearbook 2010〕 There is also a report that the 4th Kenya Rifles is at Lanet in addition.〔https://www.conferences.state.gov/RM/programevaluation2011/Related%20Documents/Defense%20Workshops/3Ds%20in%20Nairobi%20-%20An%20overview%20of%20diplomacy,%20development,%20and%20defense%20at%20the%20U.S.%20Mission,%20Nairobi,%20Kenya.pdf〕 There are three other infantry units in the Kenya Army that are not necessarily part of the Kenya Rifles; 20 Parachute Battalion, and the two Ranger units, 30th Battalion and 40th Battalion, part of the Special Operations Regiment (SOR). In addition, 50th Air Cavalry Battalion is a unique unit flying Hughes 500s which may have some airmobile infantry capability. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Kenya Army Infantry」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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