Retired chief of defence forces Gen Julius Karangi yesterday said he is proud to have led a "professional and disciplined Kenya Defence Forces, which has achieved what other armies have failed to"
Karangi officially left office yesterday and made the remarks at a ceremony in the Department of Defence headquarters in Nairobi.
He said the
KDF has grown under his watch to become one of the most modern and disciplined forces in Africa.
He announced a salary increment for all soldiers effective from July 1.
The salary increment is among the benefits Karangi proposed for the KDF soldiers before his exit.
“At a time when many militaries have been dragged into politics, the KDF has remained subservient to civil authority and gone ahead to achieve victory, where other militaries have stumbled. I am immensely proud to have been a CDF for the KDF, which has received both respect of Kenyans and the international community,” Karangi said.
He defended the deployment of the KDF into Somalia first under the Operation Linda Nchi and later as part of Amisom, saying it was done pursuant to the military’s primary mandate and Kenyans should not trivialise it.
Karangi said global security has been affected by terror networks, which have taken up ungoverned spaces such as Somalia to propagate their vice and Kenya has joined other nations in fighting them.
For this reason, he said Kenya is respected worldwide.
Karangi was yesterday physically pulled out by senior military officers on a Land Rover before boarding a black Toyota Land Cruiser VX with his wife.
Military snipers were positioned all over the Defence headquarters and several buildings surrounding the DoD as the five-hour ceremony was conducted.
His successor Gen Samson Mwathethe then boarded the Green CDF’s Mercedes Benz that drove into the DoD, symbolising the exit of one general and the entry of another in an elaborate ceremony.
Mwathethe will be sworn in today.
He said he takes over the leadership of the KDF at a very challenging time in the security of the country.
Mwathethe said he will build on Karangi’s legacy and take the KDF to high levels.
