To be a general in any military formation is probably the highest accord you can ever aspire to be in the profession of arms.
It is the pyramid top. And statistics the world over confirm that generally, only one per cent of a cadet class reach the rank of general.
In every sense, you have to be lucky to be a general, that all the stars in the firmament get arranged in some strange pattern to enable you take over the general’s baton.
Admittedly, there are so many permutations that are supposed to channel you in that direction depending on the country and the circumstances.
It is possible that the stars have aligned themselves, though in a tragic manner, for my young brother Lt Gen Charles Kahariri.
Young brother in the sense that in the early 70s, we grew up together in Mombasa where both our parents served in the same organisation.
He was closer to my young brother, my second follower, so I suppose he must have been four or so years younger than me.
His mother was tall, for a woman, his father was a bald, relatively tall, baby-faced, slim and soft spoken man and having worked with the general closely, I can attest that he took over this character trait and physique of the senior.
The son has become the father.
I joined the Kenya navy as a seaman, a sailor—the lowest rank—after recruit training and shortly after, in early 1988, after attaining the corporal’s rank, a new batch of newly-promoted fresh-faced naval officers reported to the navy, ready to be broken into sailors. Lt Kahariri was one of them.
I suspect he knew me, but kept his distance; I suppose one mark of professionalism among the uniformed service is the maintenance of mental distance between the commissioned officer and the other ranks or in my case—the ratings.
I too, kept my distance; I know my place. I worked together with this new batch of officers though with Lt Kahariri there existed an uneasy and informal relationship.
He was, and remains, a soft-spoken and you could see he had the edge over his contemporaries in his manner of doing things - outstanding professional competence.
Soon, four of the most promising new officers, after a training cruise or two, had gone overseas for advanced training. Lt Kahariri was one of the four.
Back from the advanced seamanship training, Lt Kahariri settled back into the normal peacetime routine distinguishing himself as a dedicated officer with consummate skills as a seaman, he attended the requisite career progression courses and was one of the lot that got promoted to the rank of Lieutenant Colonel in the late 90s.
About the same time, Sierra Leone crumbled and the United Nations tasked the renowned Kenyan peacekeeper Lieutenant General Daniel Opande to attempt to stick the pieces together.
Lt Gen Opande, I am told, is an officer of exceptional high standards and accepts nothing but the best, the newly-promoted Lt Col Kahariri, however, was head hunted to lead the personal staff of this tough no nonsense Kenyan general in Sierra Leone, a work his contemporaries who worked with him agree he did with exceptional zeal.
Al Shabaab called in 2010 and Col Kahariri now a full colonel, was tasked as the tactical commander of the maritime force—a command referred to as Maritime Component Command.
Incidentally, General Francis Ogola (RIP) was the air component commander. The overall commander was then Major General Leonard Ngondi who also doubled as the Land Component Commander.
I too was involved—though on a minor role— considering my rank, but it must have been a hectic and strenuous time for the command elements during the planning period and eventual launch and conduct of Operations Linda Nchi, but the MCC took it all in his stride, releasing the tension by the daily long evening runs, a bit of shuffle in the basketball court and I suspect the occasional cold frothy one in the mess.
I stepped out of uniform and veered into less patriotic endeavours, but naturally continued following the career path of the young brother whom I had unknowingly adopted.
I cannot say I was entirely surprised when he got the major generals baton, and soon, the lieutenant generals rank and sensitive appointment, a heartbeat away from the corner office. Yet again, the stars were aligning.
With the recent tragic happenings, I am still not sure, what the future portends for this newly-promoted baby face lieutenant general.
The common wording in the street about the next big move for the military is what the media bandies around as “General Tonje rules”.
I strongly suspect that the so called Tonje rules are merely suggestions and whims which have no legal grounding and have now been adopted as tradition.
There is also a big lacuna in the “Tonje rules”. The good Tonje had worked on a perfect scenario where the normal order of things would flow, in his wildest thoughts had he considered that the top KDF corner office could be vacated by the unlikely and unlucky experience we are now grasping with?
What would then follow? Has one service done its term, though falling timely short through un-mitigated disaster?
In the realm of general ship, however, we cannot afford any imperfections. Ambiguities or inadequacies.
When an officer takes the oath of general what the public see are merely the Bible, the rank insignia and the stars.
But the amount of psychoanalysis, background intelligence checks, scenario mapping, business and private activities checks and family investigations is so huge that the file has to be snow white before that oath.
Ideally, the person who gets sworn in as CDF has never touched a bad loan, never kept a mistress never had an affair, and has never had a single slip of the tongue.
So on paper to be a KDF general, and probably in any serious military establishment you must be a living saint and the national intelligence service has to use a tooth-comb to ascertain all these. You must be made from different soldierly clay.
It follows that prior to his promotion and present appointment, the powers that are must have dug deep into Lieutenant General Charles Muriu Kahariri background, personality and career to ascertain that he is the right glove for that sensitive docket.
Would it be appropriate now for the appointing authorities again have to relook at the appointment matrix and reconsider to see if he is actually a shoo in? Time will tell.
But as it is, the astral has positively aligned itself, yet again.
