According to Wikipedia, which draws on the 45 Squadron history by C.G. Jefford, a detachment of No. 45 Squadron RAF arrived at Eastleigh in December 1929 with Fairey III reconnaissance aircraft. The RAF Unit, Kenya was established on 14 December 1935, and on 15 December 1936 B Flight of 45 Squadron, by then flying Fairey Gordons, was expanded into No. 223 Squadron, which left on 17 September 1939. During the Second World War No. 1414 (Meteorological) Flight flew from Eastleigh with types from the Gladiator to the Spitfire, and after the war Nos. 21, 30 and 82 Squadrons were based there.

From 1945 to 1958 Eastleigh was also Nairobi’s main international airport, used by BOAC and East African Airways until Embakasi Airport, now Jomo Kenyatta International, opened nearby. The Directorate of Civil Aviation’s training school was set up on the airfield in 1954; as the East African School of Aviation, run by the Kenya Civil Aviation Authority, it is still there.

The Mau Mau emergency brought combat flying to Eastleigh. No. 1340 Flight RAF arrived on 27 March 1953 under Squadron Leader Charles G. St. David Jefferies with 12 Noorduyn Harvard IIB trainers, eight operational and four in reserve, according to Wikipedia, citing Steve Chappell’s study in Air Power Review. The Harvards were fitted with racks for eight 20 lb fragmentation bombs and a single Browning .303 machine gun under the starboard wing.

The airfield’s limits showed as the RAF modernised. From the arrival of No. 208 Squadron with Hawker Hunters in the late 1950s, jet fighters and bombers had to operate from Embakasi, because of Eastleigh’s high elevation and short runways, Wikipedia records. The pattern held after independence: Eastleigh became the Kenya Air Force’s headquarters and transport base, and its jets went to Nanyuki in 1974.

At 3 a.m. on Sunday 1 August 1982, according to Wikipedia’s account, Kenya Air Force soldiers took over Eastleigh Air Base, and by 4 a.m. the nearby Embakasi base had also fallen; at 6 a.m. Senior Private Hezekiah Ochuka and Sergeant Pancras Oteyo Okumu seized the Voice of Kenya radio station. The Washington Post, reporting on 9 August 1982, said the rebellion began at Embakasi Air Base and that when it failed four air force men flew from there to Dar es Salaam. The rebels had no army support and were crushed within hours.

The consequences fell on the institution. The air force was disbanded and placed under army control, and during this period KAF Eastleigh was renamed Moi Air Base, after the president the rebels had tried to overthrow, according to Wikipedia. The air force regained its independence in 1994; the base kept the name.

Moi Air Base is the headquarters of the Kenya Air Force; the Ministry of Defence gives the headquarters address there. It is also the base where new transport aircraft are received. On 20 April 2021 the first of three US-supplied C-145A Skytrucks arrived at Moi Air Base and was handed over in a ceremony presided over by the then air force commander, Maj Gen Francis Ogolla, Africa Defense Forum reported; US Air Force crews had arrived in February to train Kenyan pilots and ground crews. The Skytruck flies with two pilots and a loadmaster and carries up to 16 passengers or ten paratroopers; the magazine noted that the maintenance commander, the avionics technician and the airframe crew chief assigned to it were all women. Kenya was due to receive three in all.

The base’s worst day in the sources checked came on 16 April 1992, when a DHC-5D Buffalo lost power in one engine on final approach, overshot and crashed into a residential area near the base. Wikipedia’s Buffalo article puts the toll at all 42 passengers and four crew plus six people on the ground.