Why Did Kenya Buy 118 Katmerciler HIZIR Armoured Vehicles?

Kenya bought 118 Katmerciler HIZIR 4×4 vehicles because its Ministry of Defence concluded, in a documented procurement process, that the Turkish mine-protected vehicle was the only bid that met the Kenya Defence Forces’ user requirement for protection against vehicle-borne and directional IEDs in Somalia. The order replaced armoured personnel carriers lost to al-Shabaab, was approved by a procurement board on 12 January 2021, and was signed on 28 July 2021 at a disclosed value of $91,415,182 for vehicles, variants, spares and maintenance.

Series: Why They Bought It — Inside Africa’s Defence Procurement Decisions · Country: Kenya · System: Katmerciler HIZIR 4×4 mine-protected armoured vehicle · Procurement status: CONTRACTED · Last verified: 5 October 2026

Photo: Katmerciler HIZIR 4×4 in Turkish service. Kenya ordered 118 of the type in 2021. Photo: Knqonur, CC BY-SA 4.0, Wikimedia Commons. Credit: Knqonur, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons.

What capability did Kenya need?

By 2020 the Kenya Defence Forces had spent the better part of a decade inside Somalia, first on a national operation and then as a contingent of the African Union mission, and from Kismayo northwards its troops ran convoys along roads that al-Shabaab had learned to mine. The carriers that moved those troops were a mixed lot, and the losses among them were not a secret in Nairobi.

The requirement was stated by the KDF itself. When The Star reported the procurement on 24 January 2021, KDF spokesperson Colonel Zipporah Kioko told the paper that the army had assessed the threat and found that “the contemporary operating environment has evolved significantly with major threats being Vehicle Borne IEDs, directional IEDs and complex ambushes.” The vehicles were meant, in her words, to address “shortcomings in force protection, firepower and mobility.”

The second half of the requirement was replacement. defenceWeb’s 26 January 2021 account of the procurement records said Kenya had “lost a number of APCs in Somalia to al Shabaab militants” and that the new vehicles would replace them; The Star added that “significant numbers” of carriers had been rendered inoperable. The gap was a survivability problem on roads Kenya already patrolled, and a numbers problem in the motor pool.

What did it already operate?

Kenya’s wheeled armoured fleet before the HIZIR order is best described as accumulated rather than planned. The Star listed the types introduced between 2010 and 2019 as the Puma M26-15 from South Africa, the Chinese WMZ 551 (WZ-551) 6×6, the Mamba Mk5, the Bastion from France’s Arquus, and the Chinese CS/VP 14. defenceWeb’s January 2021 report named the Puma M26, Bastion and WZ-551 as the existing APC types. Each came from a different supplier and had been bought in modest numbers. Our Kenya Army weapons inventory lists the full fleet.

The gap that mattered was protection class. The WZ-551 is a conventional 6×6 carrier rather than a dedicated mine-protected design, and the Puma M26 and Mamba are South African mine-protected vehicles of an earlier generation. In the KDF spokesperson’s framing, the threat had moved to large vehicle-borne charges and directional devices combined with ambush, and the older vehicles had not been specified against that.

Kenya also received protected vehicles through channels that did not depend on its own budget: 12 Bastion APCs in 2018, according to Military Africa, and six IAG Guardian Xtreme 4x4s handed to the Kenyan contingent by ATMIS force headquarters in December 2022. The HIZIR purchase was different in kind. It was Kenya’s own money, its own tender, and the largest single armoured-vehicle order the country had placed in years.

What system was selected?

The Katmerciler HIZIR is a 4×4 tactical wheeled armoured vehicle built in İzmir. It carries nine people, a driver and commander plus seven dismounts, on a V-shaped monocoque hull designed to deflect mine and IED blast. Figures reported at the time of the order give a gross weight of 16 tonnes, a Cummins ISL six-cylinder diesel rated at 400 hp, a top road speed of 110 km/h and a range of about 700 km. Allison Transmission said in December 2021 that the Kenyan vehicles would use its 3200 Specialty Series fully automatic transmission. The vehicle can mount an Aselsan SARP remote weapon station with a machine gun or automatic grenade launcher.

Katmerciler’s contract covers “HIZIR and its derivatives,” and the company’s product range includes combat, command and control, CBRN reconnaissance, weapon carrier, ambulance, border security and reconnaissance configurations. Which of those Kenya ordered, and in what mix, has not been published by either side. It was already in Turkish and Ugandan service when Kenya chose it, and sits in the same broad class as the BMC Kirpi and Nurol Ejder Yalçın that we compare in Ejder Yalçın vs Kirpi.

Which alternatives were considered?

This is one of the few African armoured-vehicle buys where the competition is on paper. Reporting from Nairobi in January 2021 drew on the records of the Ministry of Defence procurement board, and those records named the bidders. defenceWeb listed OTT Technologies of South Africa, The Armoured Group and International Armoured Group alongside Katmerciler. The Star counted three bids in total, from a Turkish, a South African and a North American firm. The two accounts differ on whether three or four companies bid; both agree on the finding that only Katmerciler’s HIZIR met the user requirement.

The board records as reported did not say the losing bids were cheaper or dearer; they said the vehicles offered did not meet the user statement of requirement. Price was not the stated discriminator. That International Armoured Group lost the tender and later had six Guardian Xtremes handed to Kenyan troops by ATMIS is not a contradiction: mission-supplied vehicles are chosen by the mission, not by Nairobi.

Why was the HIZIR selected?

Only compliant bid (documented in procurement material). The decisive fact is the board’s finding, as reported by The Star and defenceWeb from the Department of Defence records, that only the HIZIR “met the USSR criteria,” the user statement of requirement. Once that finding was made, the board approved direct procurement from Katmerciler on 12 January 2021 under section 103(2)(a) of Kenya’s Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Act 2015, the provision that allows a single-source award where only one supplier can meet the need.

IED and ambush protection (officially stated). Colonel Kioko’s statement framed the requirement around vehicle-borne IEDs, directional IEDs and complex ambushes. The HIZIR’s V-hull and blast testing, which Katmerciler says was certified by an independent foreign test institution, are the obvious match. Katmerciler’s deputy chairman Furkan Katmerci told Anadolu Agency on 3 June 2021 that the vehicle was chosen because of exactly those threats and that it had been the only one of the bids to satisfy all the requirements. That is the supplier’s account of the buyer’s reasoning, and it agrees with the board records.

Replacement of combat losses (officially stated). The KDF and the Kenyan press were explicit that the vehicles would replace carriers lost in Somalia. This explains the quantity as much as the choice.

Export credit financing (reported by Defense News and The Star). Both outlets reported in January 2021 that the purchase would be financed through Türkiye’s export credit agency. Katmerciler’s 3 June 2021 stock-exchange filing said that the “signature, letter of guarantee and financing” procedures were still in progress, which is consistent with a credit-backed deal. The terms have not been published. Nothing in the records suggests financing influenced the technical finding, but it plausibly determined whether a $91 million order could be placed at all.

A vehicle already proven with a neighbour (possible but unconfirmed as a factor). Uganda had bought HIZIRs in 2019 and received them in 2020, and they appeared on Kampala’s streets in January 2021, the month Kenya’s board approved its award. Katmerciler also told Defense News the HIZIR had a “proven track record in Syria.” Whether Kenyan evaluators weighed either experience is not recorded.

Two years of supplier effort (stated by the manufacturer). Furkan Katmerci said on 28 July 2021 that the contract came “at the end of two years of effort,” placing the start of the campaign in 2019. The result was the largest single export contract in Katmerciler’s history.

Absent from the record is any stated geopolitical motive. Nobody in Nairobi said Kenya bought Turkish because of Ankara’s wider African policy, and we do not claim it. The documented reason is narrower: a protection requirement was written, bids were measured against it, and one passed.

What was included in the contract?

Katmerciler’s disclosure to Borsa İstanbul’s Public Disclosure Platform (KAP) on 28 July 2021, mirrored in the company’s own press release, describes the package as 118 HIZIR vehicles and derivatives together with spare parts and maintenance services. The Kenyan side described the vehicles by role rather than by contract line: combat, command and control, CBRN, weapon carrier, ambulance, border security and reconnaissance. The breakdown of the 118 across those roles is not publicly disclosed. Armament fit is also undisclosed; the SARP remote weapon station is an option on the type, and no Kenyan source has confirmed it was ordered.

How much did it cost?

Three figures exist, and they do not reconcile neatly. The contract value disclosed by Katmerciler to the stock exchange is $91,415,182, covering vehicles, derivatives, spares and maintenance. The figure in the Kenyan procurement board records, as reported in January 2021, was about Sh7.7 billion, which the Kenyan and South African press converted to roughly $69 million; Defense News, working from the same records, put it at nearly €60 million or about $73 million. In April 2024 the Daily Nation, in a review of Kenyan arms spending, gave the Turkish vehicle deal as Sh9.87 billion.

The simplest reading is that Sh7.7 billion was the board’s estimate before the support package and financing were finalised, and that the KAP figure is the signed value. We report both and treat the KAP disclosure as authoritative because it is a regulated filing. We do not divide any of these numbers by 118: the package includes spares and maintenance, and no per-vehicle price has been disclosed by either side.

How many were ordered?

118 vehicles, a number that appears consistently in the Kenyan board records of January 2021, in Katmerciler’s 3 June 2021 filing announcing that the tender had been decided in its favour, and in the 28 July 2021 contract disclosure. It made Kenya the largest HIZIR customer by a wide margin: Uganda’s 2019 order was reported at around 15 vehicles for $20 million, and The Gambia’s 2021 order at 20.

Training, maintenance and support

Maintenance services are part of the contract by Katmerciler’s own description. The company’s filing does not say whether that means a contractor presence in Kenya, a spares warranty, or periodic depot support, and the Ministry of Defence has not described the arrangement. Operator and maintainer training is not mentioned in any public document we found. Given the size of the fleet and the number of configurations, some training package almost certainly exists, but its scope is not publicly disclosed, and we do not guess.

Local production or technology transfer

None has been disclosed. The contract as filed is a supply contract from Katmerciler’s İzmir plant. Kenya has no armoured-vehicle assembly line, and nothing in the Kenyan or Turkish record suggests one was offered or sought as part of this deal. This stands in contrast to some other Turkish land-systems deals on the continent, which we track in Turkish defence companies active in Africa.

Delivery and operational status

The disclosed schedule called for deliveries to begin in 2022 and finish in 2023, and in December 2021 defenceWeb reported the order “on track” with first vehicles due in early 2022. After that the public trail goes quiet. We found no commissioning ceremony, KDF statement or Katmerciler filing confirming the final handover, and the 2024 and 2025 coverage of Kenya’s armoured fleet by defenceWeb and Military Africa, which detailed the arrival of Springbuck and M1117 vehicles, did not mention the HIZIR. That silence is not evidence of a problem; Kenya rarely publicises land deliveries. But the honest status is CONTRACTED with an expired delivery window, not a confirmed DELIVERED.

1. 2010–2019Kenya fields Puma M26-15, WZ-551, Mamba Mk5, Bastion and CS/VP 14 carriers in small batches; losses to al-Shabaab mines and ambushes in Somalia mount.
2. 2019Katmerciler begins its Kenyan campaign, by its own account, and books its first HIZIR export order from Uganda.
3. 2020Kenya’s Ministry of Defence runs an APC procurement; bids from Katmerciler, OTT, The Armoured Group and International Armoured Group are evaluated against the user statement of requirement.
4. 12 Jan 2021Procurement board approves direct procurement of 118 HIZIRs from Katmerciler under section 103(2)(a) of the PPADA 2015, at an estimated Sh7.7 billion.
5. 24–27 Jan 2021The Star, defenceWeb and Defense News report the board records; Col Zipporah Kioko confirms the MoD is finalising the deal.
6. 3 Jun 2021Katmerciler tells the Borsa İstanbul disclosure platform that the tender has been decided in its favour; signature, guarantee and financing procedures continue.
7. 28 Jul 2021Contract signed with the Kenya Ministry of Defence: 118 HIZIRs and derivatives, spares and maintenance, $91,415,182, deliveries 2022–2023.
8. Dec 2021Order reported on track; first vehicles expected in early 2022.
9. 2022–2023Contractual delivery window. Completion not publicly confirmed by either party as of 5 October 2026.

Has it been used operationally?

No public, sourced account of the Kenyan HIZIR fleet in action has been published. The KDF’s Somalia mission continued under ATMIS until the end of 2024 and then under its successor, and al-Shabaab’s IED campaign along the border continued throughout the delivery window. The vehicles were bought for that fight, but the KDF does not release vehicle-level operational information and we found no photograph or statement placing a HIZIR in a named Kenyan operation. The type’s African use is better documented in Uganda, where it deployed to Karamoja in 2021. For a documented African record of MRAP-class vehicles, see our survey of MRAPs used in the Sahel.

Did Kenya order more?

No follow-on HIZIR order has been disclosed. Kenya’s later armoured-vehicle acquisitions went elsewhere: Springbuck 4x4s from South Africa’s DCD Protected Mobility, commissioned in March 2024 and March 2025, and about 150 M1117 Guardian armoured security vehicles from United States excess defence stocks, refurbished with Massachusetts National Guard support and arriving from late 2024. Whether the KDF weighed a second HIZIR batch against the American offer is not documented.

What does this tell us about African procurement?

The Kenyan HIZIR buy is unusual on the continent for how much of the decision is visible. Kenya’s 2015 procurement law requires board approval and creates records; Turkish capital-markets rules require a listed company to disclose material contracts. Together they produce what most African land deals lack: named bidders, a stated requirement, a legal basis for the award, and a signed value to the dollar. Transparency here came from the buyer’s procurement law and the seller’s stock-exchange obligations, not from either defence ministry.

The second lesson concerns what “requirement-driven” means in practice. The board did not score bids on price, delivery time or offsets; it found that the other vehicles failed the user statement of requirement and one passed, which turned a competitive tender into a single-source award. For South African manufacturers, who had supplied Kenya’s Puma and Mamba fleets, a home-region customer with a mine-protected tradition chose a Turkish design against the very threat their earlier vehicles were built for. For Turkish industry, it confirmed that the HIZIR could win on specification in a market where OTT and IAG were already present, a theme we follow in Turkish systems in African service.

Financing was the quiet enabler. The reported export-credit backing lowered the cash barrier for a buyer whose budget was stretched by a long Somalia deployment. Kenya’s later moves show the other side of that calculation: when the United States offered 150 M1117s from surplus stocks, Kenya took them. A country facing an active IED threat buys from whoever can protect its soldiers on terms it can afford, and from several suppliers at once. The result is a fleet of Turkish, South African, American, Chinese and French vehicles, a logistics burden accepted in exchange for speed and affordability.

Finally, the deal shows the limits of the public record. We know why Kenya chose the vehicle. We do not know how many of each variant it received, when the last one arrived, what support Katmerciler provides in-country, or how the vehicles have performed under fire. The decision is documented; the outcome is not. That asymmetry is the normal condition of African defence procurement, and it is why this series reconstructs decisions rather than claiming to audit them.

Procurement record

FAQ

Why did Kenya buy the Hizir armoured vehicle from Turkey?

Because the Kenyan Ministry of Defence procurement board found that the Katmerciler HIZIR was the only bid to meet the KDF’s user statement of requirement for protection against vehicle-borne IEDs, directional IEDs and complex ambushes in Somalia. The board approved direct procurement on 12 January 2021, and the vehicles were also meant to replace APCs lost to al-Shabaab.

How many Hizir vehicles did Kenya order?

118 HIZIR 4×4 vehicles and derivatives, in a single contract signed with Katmerciler on 28 July 2021. The mix of variants has not been published.

How much did Kenya pay for the Hizir APCs?

Katmerciler disclosed a contract value of $91,415,182 to the Istanbul stock exchange, covering the vehicles, variants, spare parts and maintenance. Kenyan procurement records reported in January 2021 had estimated about Sh7.7 billion (roughly $69 million). No per-vehicle price has been disclosed.

Who else bid for the Kenyan APC contract?

Procurement board records reported by defenceWeb named OTT Technologies of South Africa, The Armoured Group and International Armoured Group as the other bidders. The Star counted three bids in total. In both accounts, only the HIZIR met the user requirement.

Has Kenya received all 118 Hizir vehicles?

The contract scheduled deliveries for 2022 to 2023, and the order was reported on track in December 2021. Neither the KDF nor Katmerciler has publicly confirmed completion, so DefenceMENA records the status as CONTRACTED pending confirmation.

What is the Katmerciler Hizir?

A Turkish 4×4 mine-protected tactical armoured vehicle with a V-shaped hull, a 400 hp Cummins diesel, seating for nine, a top speed of about 110 km/h and a range of about 700 km. It can mount an Aselsan SARP remote weapon station and is offered in combat, command, CBRN, ambulance, reconnaissance and border-security configurations.

Which other African countries operate the Hizir?

Uganda received its first HIZIRs in 2020 under a 2019 order reported at about 15 vehicles for $20 million, and The Gambia ordered 20 in 2021. Kenya’s 118 is the largest HIZIR export order to date.

More from Why They Bought It

• Why Did Morocco Buy the AH-64E Apache?
• Why Did Nigeria Buy the VT-4 Tank?
• Why Did Côte d'Ivoire Buy the Wing Loong II?

Sources

• Katmerciler – Katmerciler’den Kenya’ya 91,4 Milyon Dolarlık HIZIR Satışı İçin İmzalar Atıldı (28 Jul 2021)
• Milliyet Uzmanpara (KAP news) – Katmerciler, Kenya’ya 91,4 milyon dolarlık HIZIR satışı için imza attı (28 Jul 2021)
• DefenceTurk – Katmerciler Hızır ile Kenya’daki 118 araçlık ihaleyi kazandı (KAP filing, 3 Jun 2021)
• Anadolu Agency – Turkey’s armored vehicles make inroads in Africa (3 Jun 2021)
• Anadolu Ajansı – Katmerciler’den Kenya’ya 91,4 milyon dolarlık zırhlı araç satışı (28 Jul 2021)
• The Star (Kenya) – KDF to buy 118 top military vehicles to fight al Shabaab (24 Jan 2021)
• defenceWeb – Kenya looking to order 118 Hizir armoured vehicles from Turkey (26 Jan 2021)
• Defense News – Kenya orders 118 armored vehicles from Turkey (27 Jan 2021)
• Army Recognition – Kenya purchases 118 Hizir APCs from Turkey (26 Jan 2021)
• defenceWeb – Turkey’s Katmerciler wins Kenyan order for 118 Hizir vehicles (9 Jun 2021)
• defenceWeb – Katmerciler confirms sales of 118 Hizir vehicles to Kenya (28 Jul 2021)
• Shephard Media – Katmerciler confirms Kenya deal (Jul 2021)
• TurDef – Katmerciler exports Hızır to Kenya for $91.4 million (28 Jul 2021)
• defenceWeb – Kenya’s Hizir APC order on track (20 Dec 2021)
• defenceWeb – Uganda revealed as Hizir APC customer (Jan 2021)
• defenceWeb – Gambia orders Hizir APCs (23 Jun 2022)
• Military Africa – Kenyan troops under ATMIS get IAG Guardian Xtreme armoured vehicles (20 Dec 2022)
• Daily Nation – Inside Kenya’s multi-billion arms purchasing spree (6 Apr 2024)
• Africa Defense Forum – Kenya receives helicopters, armored vehicles amid ongoing terror threats (1 Oct 2024)
• defenceWeb – Kenya boosts armoured vehicle fleet with Springbuck and M1117 APCs (2025)

Envanter Media keeps a Turkish-language technical profile of the Katmerciler HIZIR 4×4.

Last updated: 5 October 2026. This article is updated in place when the procurement status changes.