The General Service Unit (GSU) is a paramilitary

Paramilitary

A paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....

 wing of the Kenyan Military

Military of Kenya

The Kenya Defence Forces are the armed forces of the Republic of Kenya. The Kenya Army, Kenya Navy, and Kenya Air Force comprise the national Defence Forces. The current Kenya Defence Forces were established, and its composition laid out, in Article 241 of the 2010 Constitution of Kenya...

 and Kenyan Police

Kenya Police

The Kenya Police is a national body in charge of law enforcement in the East Africa State of Kenya. While organised at a national level, each arm reports to a Provincial police authority, which in turn divides its force by local Police Divisions, headquartered at local police stations...

, consisting of highly trained police officers and special forces soldiers, transported by 7 dedicated Cessna

Cessna

The Cessna Aircraft Company is an airplane manufacturing corporation headquartered in Wichita, Kansas, USA. Their main products are general aviation aircraft. Although they are the most well known for their small, piston-powered aircraft, they also produce business jets. The company is a subsidiary...

s and
3 Bell helicopters

Bell Helicopter Textron

Bell Helicopter is an American rotorcraft manufacturer headquartered in Hurst, Texas, near Fort Worth. A division of Textron, Bell manufactures military helicopter and tiltrotor products in and around Fort Worth, as well as in Amarillo, Texas, and commercial rotorcraft products in Mirabel, Quebec,...

 Having been in existence since the late 1940s, the GSU has fought in a number of conflicts in and around Kenya, including the 1963 - 1969 Shifta War

Shifta War

The Shifta War was a secessionist conflict in which ethnic Somalis in the Northern Frontier District of Kenya attempted to join with their fellow Somalis in a Greater Somalia...

 and the 1982 Kenyan coup

1982 Kenyan coup

The 1982 Kenyan coup d'état attempt was a failed attempt to overthrow President Daniel arap Moi's government. At midnight on Sunday, 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. The...

. The Kenyan police outlines the objectives of the GSU as follows, to deal with situations affecting internal security throughout the Republic, to be an operational force that is not intended for use on duties of a permanent static nature, and primarily, to be a reserve force to deal with special operations and civil disorders.
Initially created as the Emergency Company or Regular Police Reserve in 1948, the GSU began as a unit of 50 men armed with Bren guns carriers and armoured cars and was involved in a number of uprisings including the Mau Mau Uprising

Mau Mau Uprising

The Mau Mau Uprising was a military conflict that took place in Kenya between 1952 and 1960...

 before being renamed the General Service Unit in September 1953.