Bruce McKenzie

Bruce Roy McKenzie (1 January 1919 – 24 May 1978) was a South African-born Kenyan politician. He was the Minister of Agriculture in Kenya during the presidency of Jomo Kenyatta, to whom he was an adviser. He is alleged to have been an agent for British, South African or Israeli intelligence by various people. He was assassinated on the orders of Ugandan dictator Idi Amin.

Early life
McKenzie was born in 1919 in Richmond in South Africa's Natal Province. He joined the South African Air Force in 1939, and was seconded during World War II to Britain's Royal Air Force, with which he saw action in North Africa, the Mediterranean and European theatres. Following his air force service, he emigrated to Kenya in 1946 and became a prominent farmer in Nakuru.

Political career
In January 1976, McKenzie was involved in the kidnapping 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, McKenzie persuaded Kenyan President Kenyatta to permit Mossad to collect intelligence prior to the operation, and to allow the Israeli Air Force access to the Nairobi airport. Before the operation, McKenzie assisted a Mossad agent who flew a small plane to Entebbe to take aerial photographs of the airport installations and parked fighter jets which were destroyed by the Israeli troops in the raid.

In retaliation, Ugandan President Idi Amin ordered Ugandan agents to assassinate McKenzie. He was killed on 24 May 1978 when a bomb attached to his aircraft exploded. The bomb was reportedly concealed inside either a mounted antelope head or a carved wooden statue in the form of a lion's head McKenzie had been presented as a gift from Idi Amin just prior to the flight.

McKenzie was survived by his wife, Christina, three sons and two daughters. Later, Mossad Chief Director Meir Amit had a forest planted in Israel in McKenzie's name.