Kenya is among 10 African nations participating in naval drills and exercises with India, signalling close defence relations between the two states.
The Indian Navy on April 12 will launch the maiden initiative of Africa-India Key Maritime Engagement (AIKEYME), along with Tanzania.
The initiative, along with IOS Sagar, aims to consolidate the Indian Navy’s stature as the “preferred security partner” and “first responder” in the Indian Ocean Region. IONS Sagar stands for Indian Ocean Naval Symposium (IONS) themed “Security and Growth for All in the Region” (Sagar).
The move also seeks to advance India’s vision of Mutual and Holistic Advancement for Security Across the Regions, which Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced in March this year.
China, India’s longtime rival and sometimes adversary, has long been developing its own Blue Dragon Indo-Pacific security strategy with its Belt and Road Initiative and ‘String of Pearls’ development and bases in the vast region.
In the exercise, the INS Sunayna — redesignated as Indian Ocean Ship SAGAR — was deployed on April 5 to the Southwest Indian Ocean Region with a combined crew from India and nine “friendly foreign countries”. They are Kenya, the Comoros, Madagascar, Maldives, Mauritius, Mozambique, the Seychelles, Sri Lanka, and Tanzania.
The ship will visit Dar-es-Salaam in Tanzania to coincide with AIKEYME, Nacala in Mozambique, Port Louis in Mauritius, Port Victoria in the Seychelles and Male in the Maldives for joint Exclusive Economic Zones surveillance.
This maiden initiative seeks to collaborate the capacity building efforts by training together towards promoting maritime security in the region.
“The AIKEYME exercise involves 10 nations, including Comoros, Djibouti, Kenya, Madagascar, Mauritius, Mozambique, Seychelles, South Africa, India, and Tanzania. It includes training on anti-piracy operations, Search and Rescue (SAR), seamanship skills, visit board search and seizure (VBSS), and helicopter operations,” the Indian government says.
For the maiden AIKEYME exercise, there will be two Kenya Navy ships — Jasiri and Shupavu — two metal shark boats, along with 04? Only four? Kenya Navy personnel as observers and participants.
Outgoing Maritime Principal Secretary Geoffrey Kaituko says the two sides are workinghand-in-hand towards achieving greater synergy by training together and sharing bestpractices.
“I am sanguine that these two initiatives have brought the IOR nations, and Kenya-India in Particular, closer towards addressing regional maritime security challenges,” Kaituko said. He is also the chairman of the National Maritime Security Committee.
The IOR broadly defines areas consisting of littoral states of the Indian Ocean, including sub-regions such as Australia, South East Asia, South Asia, the Horn of Africa, and Southern and Eastern Africa.
Kaituko acknowledged the partnership between the two maritime neighbours is at an “all-time high in all areas”. He expressed appreciation for the shared commitment of regional navies to foster such a secure marine environment.
Kaituko, who is joining the Foreign Service as Deputy Head of Mission in Italy, said the association between Kenya and India has grown manifold over the years in the maritime domain.
India and Kenya signed an MoU on Defence Cooperation in July 2016, providing a legal framework to cooperate in various areas of defence. This will be another of the many recent defence cooperation engagements.
In the last year, four Indian ships made port calls at Mombasa, and the INS Sumedha — a sister ship of Sunayna — was also the first warship to ever make a port call at Port Lamu in December 2023.
“We are grateful to INS Sumedha and the Indian Navy as they provided HADR (Humanitarian Assistance and Disaster Relief) material on May 11, 2024, when Kenya was afflicted by heavy floods, truly underscoring that friends like India are true friends and neighbours who come and help in crisis, even without being asked,” PS Kaituko said.
The initiative, along with IOS Sagar, aims to consolidate the Indian Navy's stature as 'preferred security partner' and 'first responder' in the Indian Ocean region.
In August 2023, then-Defence Minister Aden Duale visited India for three days to promote military ties.
During President William Ruto’s state visit to New Delhi in December 2023, Kenya and India signed the Joint Vision Statement on Maritime Cooperation in the Indian Ocean Region (Bahari)
‘Bahari’, Swahili for the ocean, seeks to boost maritime trade and industry, advancing maritime security, harnessing blue economy potential, accelerating connectivity, reinforcingcapacity development, and improving information sharing.
“Both leaders agreed to deepen maritime security cooperation by further strengthening existing dialogue mechanisms like the India-Kenya Joint Defence Cooperation Committee set up under the MoU on Defence Cooperation signed between the two countries in 2016, and establishing new institutional mechanisms, including the staff-level talks between the Naval forces of the two countries,” the External Affairs ministry said in a statement at the time.
Earlier, on September 3, 2024, India hosted the third Joint Defence Cooperation Committee meeting with Kenya in New Delhi.
Later in in September, Defence Secretary Shri Giridhar Aramane led an Indian delegation to Kenya on a two-day official visit at the invitation of Defence PS Patrick Mariru. The delegation comprised of senior officers from the Ministry of Defence and the Ministry of External Affairs.
On December 4 last year, Chief of the Defence Forces Charles Kahariri and High Commissioner Namgya Khampa met at the Defence Headquarters in Nairobi, where they discussed enhancing growing bilateral cooperation, particularly in defence and security.
A statement by KDF said they explored potential avenues for further collaboration, including joint training initiatives, development of defence industries, promotion of maritime security, information sharing, and strengthening peacekeeping capabilities.
Kenya and India share a long-standing relationship, which dates back to the Indian Ocean trade routes and their shared struggles for independence. Over time, this partnership has expanded from trade to include numerous areas of cooperation, with Defence cooperation becoming a key pillar.
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