By CYRUS OMBATI

Bad weather denied Kenyans spectacular and much-anticipated fly-pasts by the Kenya Air Force’s jets during the celebrations for the promulgation of the new Constitution.

Earlier official programme had indicated there would be several fly-pasts by helicopters and F-5Es jets with radar upgrades, but the jets failed to show up towards the end of the fly-past, which caused anxiety before the commentator of the ceremony moved on to the next item in the programme, entertainment.

Military spokesman Bogita Ongeri later told The Standard on Saturday pilots had cited bad weather as the cause of the failure. "They were supposed to show up but officials at Nanyuki base say they could not due to bad weather," he said on phone.

The jets have in the past weeks been practising in preparation for the historic event.

Meanwhile, the military used the occasion to display some of their artillery with different types of the hardware being driven past the VIP dais.

Among the equipment that were displayed included troop carriers, armoured personnel carriers, tanks, mobile navy carriers, radar communicators and some of the recently acquired Pumas and Hughes 500 D choppers.

The tanks were the first and last ones to be driven to and out of the dais as the President and other dignitaries stood in their honour.

NEW MILITARY HARDWARE

A similar show was witnessed in December 1963 when Kenya gained independence. The artillery, some aboard lorries had started to roll onto the roads from 2am.

Most of those displayed yesterday looked new. Insiders revealed they were recently acquired from various manufacturing countries.

Over the past five years, Kenya has been upgrading its military, which is considered the most professional in the East African region.

In last year’s Budget, the vote for the Ministry of Defence hit an all-time high of Sh44 billion. In a 2008 survey of weapons purchases carried out by the Swedish International Peace Research Institute, Kenya ranked fourth out of 23 east and southern African countries.

According to the report, Kenya’s military expenditure rose from Sh16.7 billion in 1999 to Sh27 billion in 2008. Since President Kibaki came to power in 2002, the country has been looking to China and Eastern Europe for its arms and military hardware.