Bruce Mackenzie

Who was Bruce Mackenzie?

Bruce Roy Mackenzie was a British intelligence operative and Minister of Agriculture in Kenya under Jomo Kenyatta's presidency, to whom he was an adviser. For many years he was the only white minister in post-independent Kenya.

In January 1976, Mackenzie was involved in the capture of two German and three Arab suspected terrorists wanted by Israel for an attempted missile attack on an El Al airliner taking off from the airport of Nairobi. The five were secretly transported to Israel and later sentenced to long prison terms.

In late June 1976, during Operation Entebbe Mackenzie persuaded President Kenyatta to permit Israeli Mossad agents to gather information prior to the hostage rescue operation in Uganda, and to allow Israeli Air Force aircraft to land and refuel at a Nairobi airport after the rescue. Before the operation, Mackenzie flew his private plane to Entebbe to enable Mossad agents to take arial photographs of the airport installations and parked fighter jets which were soon destroyed by the Israeli troops.