Determinants of African States Arms Procurement Preferences, from Strategic to Commercial Imperative

What drives the arms procurement practices of African states? Why are African states shifting their military procurement from traditional suppliers (the West and Russia) in preference for Chinese arms? This paper sought to use the case of Uganda and Kenya to find out and examine if the growing preference for Chinese arms is driven by primarily commercial motives or by higher-order strategic objectives of counterbalancing the West’s military influence. The research finds that, although countries view US military hardware as the gold standard in quality, the higher cost of comparable US hardware and the protracted or intrusive US oversight processes make Chinese arms more attractive. In addition, diversification of military suppliers is seen as strategically important to avoid dependency. The paper thus highlights the growing commercial imperative in military procurement and argues that this commercial bent favors China with longer term strategic implications for great power competition in Africa.