How KAF Jets Ended Up in Mercenaries' Hands

[seemslikeadream]

Last year, as Cote d'Ivoire was receiving two of the ex-Kenya Air Force jets - for a song - the country was on the verge of buying suspect Czech jet fighters for Sh12.3 billion.

The eight jetfighters were then said to be replacements for the ageing British Hawk and the F5 combat jets in a deal that had been pushed by former Kanu government mandarins.

Although the Department of Defence early this year stated it was not bound by "informal negotiations" between the manufacturer's local agent and the previous government, Air Force pilots had criticised the previous decision to purchase the jets.


According to an investigation carried out by Britain's Observer newspaper last year, Mr Tom Moloney was approached by a Sheffield-based businessman, Mr Jurgen Morton Hall, who wanted to buy the ex-Kenyan jet and a similar one - ostensibly for a filming company that was due to shoot a movie in South Africa.

Morton's client was later revealed as Strikemaster Films that, though having a London address, was only set up by mercenaries to purchase the two jets. It later emerged that one of the directors of the company was a French mercenary named Jean-Jacques Fuentes.

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