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Uganda, Burundi lead East Africa in military spending

Wednesday April 16 2014
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UPDF soldiers man Juba International Airport. Uganda and Burundi led the rest of East Africa in military spending last year allocating 2.2 and 2.3 per cent of GDP respectively to defence. Photo/Courtesy

Tanzania is lagging behind its East African partners in military spending, a new report shows. The country spent just $380 million since 2011.

Uganda and Burundi led the rest of East Africa in military spending last year allocating 2.2 and 2.3 per cent of GDP respectively to defence with Kenya increasing her expenditure to the highest level ever in nominal terms.

The two countries stayed ahead of Kenya, Tanzania and Rwanda which spent 1.9, 1.2 and 1.1 per cent of their GDP respectively.

Uganda’s defence spending has stayed over 2 per cent of GDP rising to 4 per cent in the last two decades, even as the rest of the region made deliberate efforts to cut their spend in the same period.

Data released on Monday by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (Sipri) shows that Kenya increased her defence budget by 20 per cent to $861 million, the highest in the region on nominal terms.

READ: Kenya’s defence budget grows ahead of Africa peers in 2013

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Sipri is an independent international institute dedicated to research into conflict, armaments, arms control and disarmament funded by the Swedish government.

Kenya is faced with problems of terrorism, attacks from Oromo militias in Ethiopia and piracy in the Indian Ocean that have exposed the country’s military inadequacies.

“Due to the military “achievement” of KDF against Al-Shabaab militants in Somalia, Kenya would most likely want to obtain a greater influence on the political and administrative future of the region,” said Sipri.

Adjusted for inflation since 2011 Sipri said Kenya spent $861 million compared to Uganda’s $465 million with Tanzania spending just $380 million.

Kenya’s military spending had been ranging between $425 million and $550 million in the early 2000s but had started rising to $700 million after the country started modernising its military hardware that culminated into the Anglo Leasing scandal.

READ: Graft invades military and defence budgets

Africa is the only continent whose military budget stayed on a growth path as Europe, Asia and Americas cut their defence budget in austerity measures.

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