Laikipia Air Base is a Kenya Air Force base located approximately west-northwest of

Nanyuki Nanyuki is a Market town in Laikipia County of Kenya lying northwest of Mount Kenya along the A2 road and at the terminus of the branch railway from Nairobi. The name is derived from Enyaanyukie Maasai word for resemblance. It is situated just ...

Kenya ) , national_anthem = "Ee Mungu Nguvu Yetu"() , image_map = , map_caption = , image_map2 = , capital = Nairobi , coordinates = , largest_city = Nairobi , ...

. Laikipia AB was established in 1974 as Nanyuki Air Base and later renamed for

the county ''The County'' ( is, Héraðið) is a 2019 Icelandic Melodrama#Film, melodrama directed by Grímur Hákonarson. It was screened in the Contemporary World Cinema section at the 2019 Toronto International Film Festival. Cast * Arndís Hrönn Egi ...

in which it is located.

History

On 25 February 1974, Nanyuki Air Base was opened by the Kenya Air Force (KAF) as its primary airfield for fighter aircraft. In June 1974, the KAF's fleet of

BAC Strikemaster The BAC 167 Strikemaster is a British jet-powered training and light attack aircraft. It was a development of the Hunting Jet Provost trainer, itself a jet engined version of the Percival Provost, which originally flew in 1950 with a radial p ...

aircraft were transferred from

RAF Eastleigh East or Orient is one of the four cardinal directions or points of the compass. It is the opposite direction from west and is the direction from which the Sun rises on the Earth. Etymology As in other languages, the word is formed from the f ...

(later named KAF Eastleigh) to Nanyuki Air Base. Also in 1974, the KAF purchased six

Hawker Hunter The Hawker Hunter is a transonic British jet-powered fighter aircraft that was developed by Hawker Aircraft for the Royal Air Force (RAF) during the late 1940s and early 1950s. It was designed to take advantage of the newly developed Rolls-R ...

combat jets from the

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the United Kingdom's air and space force. It was formed towards the end of the First World War on 1 April 1918, becoming the first independent air force in the world, by regrouping the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) and ...

and located them at Nanyuki Air Base (which had since its opening been renamed KAF Nanyuki). In 1978, the

Northrop F-5 Freedom Fighter The Northrop F-5 is a family of supersonic light fighter aircraft initially designed as a privately funded project in the late 1950s by Northrop Corporation. There are two main models, the original F-5A and F-5B Freedom Fighter variants and the ...

was introduced to the KAF and also based at

, and the following year, Nanyuki became the home of the KAF's fleet of Hawker Siddeley Hawk flight training jets. After the a failed coup by a group of KAF officers on 1 August 1982, the Kenya Air Force was disbanded and placed under the control of the

Kenyan Army The Kenya Army is the land arm of the Kenya Defence Forces. History The origin of the present day Kenya Army lie with the British Army's King's African Rifles. In the last quarter of the 19th Century the British began actively enforcing the aboli ...

. During this period, KAF Eastleigh was renamed

Moi Air Base Moi Air Base, formerly known as RAF Eastleigh and Eastleigh Airport is a military airport located to the east of Nairobi, in the Eastleigh suburb. The airport is used by the Kenya Air Force. Additionally, the airfield is the home of the East ...

and KAF Nanyuki was renamed Laikipia Air Base (LAB). In August 2014, gunmen drove into one of the airfield's gate and opened fire. One soldier was injured.

British presence

In 2015, the UK began an infrastructure project to relocate the HQ for its

British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gurk ...

training unit in Kenya, named the

British Army Training Unit Kenya The British Army Training Unit Kenya (BATUK) is a training support unit of the British Army located in Kenya. It provides a location for combined arms light role infantry battle group exercises, forward operating bases and engineering. It constit ...

(BATUK), to Laikipia Air Base. The HQ is located within an area designated Laikipia Air Base East (LAB(E)). Previously, it was located on land leased from the Nanyuki Agricultural Society, which had to be vacated every year to make way for an agricultural show. LAB(E) now provides permanent facilities on land leased directly from the Kenyan government. BATUK is used to train around 10,000 British troops per year and has 300 permanent personnel.

References

Airports in Kenya Military airbases Military of Kenya Laikipia County {{Kenya-airport-stub