The Royal East African Navy (REAN) had its origins in the Kenyan
Royal Naval Volunteer Reserve (RNVR), which after the end of
World War II in 1945 operated a small naval force in the waters of
East Africa. The REAN headquarters was in
Kilindini,
Mombasa, Kenya, and headed by a resident officer from the Royal Navy. Several Royal Navy ships were transferred to the REAN and identified as His/Her Majesty's East African Ship (HMEAS). Initially, the REAN was a 200-member force. It conducted training and performed useful work in
famine relief operations. In June 1958 the
Ham-class minesweeper was collected by a REAN delivery crew and renamed HMEAS
Bassingham. In 1961 ''
The Statesman's Yearbook'' wrote that the REAN had a complement of eight officers, eight
chief petty officers, and 200
ratings. After Tanganyika became independent on 9 December 1961, its government decided that the REAN was unsuitable in its existing form. With Tanganyika withdrawing, the governments of Kenya, Uganda, and Zanzibar could not afford the cost of modernizing it. In December 1961, it was announced that the REAN would disband in 1962. "At noon on 30 June 1962, the White Ensign was lowered from the masthead in front of Navy House, Telegraph Point, Liwatoni, Kilindini, and the REAN was disbanded." Its assets were handed over to the
East African Railways and Harbours Corporation; the Naval Base was handed over to the [Mombasa] Harbour Authority. The Royal Navy had an armament depot at the present site of the Kenya Navy (Mtongwe, opposite the
Mombasa–Nairobi Standard Gauge Railway freight terminus) which served the logistic requirements of the UK forces in the Middle East. The REAN's former ships were discarded or sold. == Ships ==