National Defence College to be upgraded to university status

The Kenya Defence Forces’ National Defence College (NDC) is Thursday expected to receive a Charter to become a fully-fledged university.

President Uhuru Kenyatta will award a Charter for the National Defence University.

This according to officials will enable them to have a well-grounded human resource at the strategic policy level.

By the envisaged charter, NDC, which has been training select multi-agency strategic leaders is set for an upgrade to university status.

This will offer the unique opportunity to upgrade and support the pedagogical rigours of strategic education.

Based in Karen, Nairobi, NDC’s mission is to prepare selected senior military officers and equivalent senior civil servants of Kenya and their counterparts from their selected friendly countries for higher responsibilities in the strategic direction and management of security and other related areas of public policy.

NDC is a KDF sponsored institution charged with the responsibility of developing and improving the intellectual capacity of senior military and government officials on broader dimension of national security issues in order to think globally and act nationally.

The college argues on its website today national security is no longer viewed through military lenses but has expanded to a multi-dimensional facet in meaning.

In its widest sense, it is the “defence against challenges to a nation’s vital security interests” since security threats from within are increasingly becoming a feature of developing nation-states, especially in Africa.

This, according to NDC is evidenced by the current number of conflicts and civil wars raging in the continent culminating in “Failed States” threat perception and security concerns of any nation-state, therefore, encompasses the broader dimension of socio-political, economic, technological, military and environmental issues.

“The identification and timely solutions of these challenges are therefore of great significance to the national security of any state and requires the orchestration of all the national instruments of power- political, economic, and military within the nation-state,” NDC says.

It adds Africa remains and still will remain in the foreseeable future vulnerable to, ethnic, religious and communal conflicts orchestrated by underdevelopment.

This is in addition to emerging global threats of proliferation of small arms and light weapons, terrorism, illicit drugs, cyber and cross border crimes to name but a few.

In the last decade, Kenya became a home for a large refugee population with its adverse impact on security, economy, environment and society, thus creating an environment that challenged our national capacity.

NDC, according to the website was therefore found necessary to analyze such security challenges and advance possible policy response, strategies and solutions.