JFK's assassination files reveal CIA's presence in Nairobi

In the 8,000 digital documents, it was revealed that the CIA had set up shop in Kenya and other 5 countries as part of their Africa Division (AF Division) bases.

At the time, in the early 1960s, the Secret Service had set camp around the globe to manage the President's travels abroad as part of their operational norm.

"These include the acquisition and dissemination of information, consultation, coordination, and operational interchanges," read the documents in part.

Other nations in Africa include Johannesburg in South Africa, Lagos (Nigeria), Pretoria (South Africa), Rabat (Morocco) and Salisbury, later named Harare in Zimbabwe.

The US had moved to strategically position itself in Nairobi and other areas due to the shaky atmosphere surrounding its relations with the Soviet Union shortly after the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 nearly led to a nuclear war.

Many of the documents reflected the work by investigators to learn more about assassin Lee Harvey Oswald's time in the Soviet Union and track his movements in the months leading up to Kennedy's assassination in Dallas on November 22, 1963.

CIA's long life in Kenya

CIA's presence in Kenya has however enjoyed longevity as in 2004, Rapid Response Team (RRT), a clandestine ‘special team’, was formed.

The secretive Kenyan team is informally known as the Rendition Operations Team mainly comprised of the Kenyan paramilitary General Service Unit’s Recce Company. 

It was set up, equipped, trained and guided on tactical counter-terror operations by CIA and managed by a paramilitary liaison officer at the US embassy in Kenya’s capital Nairobi, but has until now successfully avoided public scrutiny. 

Based on interviews, the CIA-backed team has been responsible for the capture of high-value terror suspects, as well as rendition operations, killings and alleged summary executions.

The creation of the RRT was “an indigenous solution to an indigenous problem”, a former senior CIA counter-terrorism official told Declassified UK.

The paramilitary team is said to have been swept in to repel the DusitD2 attackers in 2019.

The United States has maintained strong ties with Kenya on high-level security in the war against terrorism and other security issues.

In 2024, the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI) Director Christopher Wray visited Kenya adding onto the list of US officials visiting the East African economic powerhouse.

Other top U.S officials who have been to Kenya are Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director William Burns, Secretary of Defence Lloyd Austin, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo and Brian Nelson, the US Department of Treasury’s Under-secretary for Counter-terrorism and Financial Intelligence.