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By Godfrey Olukya 29-11-2012
A Kenyan general was yesterday appointed as force commander of United Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) by Nations by UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
The appointed Kenyan is 51yrs old Major General Ngondi. Married, with three children, he has distinctively served in Kenyan army for over thirty years. He has a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Nairobi and he is a graduate of Kenya’s Staff and National Defense College.
He was commissioned as a Lieutenant of the Infantry Corps from the Kenya Military Academy at Lanet, Nakuru, Kenya, in 1979.
He has now succeeded Major General Muhammad Khalid of Pakistan, who completed his assignment on 9 November 2012.
A statement issued by UN said ‘The Secretary-General is grateful for Major General Khalid’s significant contribution to UNMIL over the past two years, a critical period that saw national elections and the beginning of the transfer of security responsibilities from UNMIL to the Liberian Government.’
Until the Secretary-General’s appointment, Ngondi was the General Officer Commanding Western Region Kenya, an appointment he
took up in April 2012.
From November 2010, Ngondi served as the General Officer Commanding Eastern Region, Kenya. Between 2005 and 2010, he held brigade-level commands and served as Deputy Commandant of the Kenyan Defence Staff College.
Major General Ngondi has held staff positions at army and formation-level headquarters, and he served as a commanding officer
of the Kenyan units in the United Nations Transition Assistance Group in Namibia (UNTAG) in 1989 and the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in 2000.
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