1982 Kenyan coup
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The 1982 Kenyan coup was a failed attempt to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi's government. At midnight on Saturday, August 1, 1982, a group of soldiers from the Kenya Air Force took over the radio station Voice of Kenya and announced that they had overthrown the government.
Hezekiah Ochuka, a Senior Private Grade-I (the second lowest rank in Kenya’s military) ruled Kenya for about six hours before escaping to Tanzania. After being extradited back to Kenya, he was tried and found guilty for leading the coup and hanged in 1987. Also implicated in the coup attempt was Jaramogi Oginga Odinga, a former Vice President to Jomo Kenyatta.
The attempt was quickly suppressed by Loyalist forces led by the Army, the General Service Unit (GSU) — paramilitary wing of the police — and later the regular police, but not without civilian casualties.
After the coup, the entire Kenyan air force was disbanded. Twelve people, including Ochuka, were sentenced to death, and over 900 were jailed.
The coup is also a direct cause for the snap elections in 1983.
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