COLONEL PAUL NJUGUNA PROMOTED TO BRIGADIER AND APPOINTED CHIEF OF STRATEGIC COMMUNICATIONS UNIT, SUCCEEDING BRIGADIER ZIPPORAH KIOKO
Colonel Paul Njuguna, a senior information officer with the Kenya Defence Forces, has been promoted to the rank of Brigadier and appointed Chief of the Strategic Communications Unit.
The appointment made this week is an upgrade of the Public Information Officer who has spent many years serving the KDF. Brigadier Njuguna replaces Brigadier Zipporah Kioko, who is also moving to preside over the National Defence University, Kenya.
Before this new appointment, Brigadier Njuguna was the Head of Postgraduate Studies and Director of Corporate Communications at the National Defence University-Kenya, based in Nakuru.
The KDF career is marked with a great rise through the ranks. Before this promotion, Njuguna was promoted to the colonel rank on August 2016 and became KDF Spokesperson following the exit of Col David Obonyo, who proceeded for studies in Tanzania.
Before this role, Njuguna had served as the spokesperson for the African Union Mission in Somalia with the rank of Lieutenant Colonel.
Brigadier Zipporah Kioko, the outgoing Chief of the Strategic Communications Unit, when established in 2022, became the first officer to be appointed to the office.
Before that, she served as the KDF Spokesperson for two years and became the first female officer to serve in that office. She advanced her education at the Royal College of Defence, UK in July 2021 and was succeeded by Colonel Easther Wanjiku, now the first Kenyan Defence Attaché to Japan. Kioko’s appointment to the Spokesperson job on 30th April 2020 was in line with military gender mainstreaming that was began by then Chief of Defence Forces General Samson Mwathethe.
The elevation of Brigadier Kioko becomes the pointer to the increasing number of women holding senior KDF positions.
Other notable female officers in the Kenya Defence Forces include Major General Fatuma Ahmed, who recently took over as Commander Kenya Air Force, thus becoming the highest-ranking female officer in the Service.
Other female brigadiers are Brigadier Yvonne Kerubo, Chief of Legal Services at Defence Headquarters, and Brigadier Alice Muringo Mate, appointed as the Director of the Assets Recovery Agency. Lieutenant Colonel Rachael Nduta Kimani is the Deputy Aide-de-Camp.
The year has also witnessed the highest deployment of more than 1,000 service women ever to be enlisted at the same time.
President William Ruto continued to trailblaze gender inclusion into the military by his appointment of Soipan Tuya as the next Defence Cabinet Secretary, pending approval by parliament.
Other Defence Cabinet Secretaries are Dr. Monicah Juma and Raychelle Omamo.
