Military might is always a sign of power and influence, it doesn’t necessarily mean that you must be in war for you to upgrade. When you have lethal weapon, people will fear to attack or talk ill of you unless they feel that they can match your powers. Look at Israel, even with the tiny landmass it has, it still got the guts to attack Iran. The reason they did that was because they believed in their weapon. As long as Ethiopia keeps on modernizing their military, Kenya will also do so.
As you think of Al Shabab and Tz, Kenya is thinking of Ethiopia. Tanzania has no air power to trouble, it’s only Ethiopia and Uganda. Ethiopia is the real threat to Kenya in this region, then Uganda a distance second.