Ruto tasks Defence University to draw up security strategy

President William Ruto (centre) with Chief of Defence Forces General Francis Ogolla (left) and National Defence University-Kenya Vice-Chancellor Maj Gen Said Mohammed Farah. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

President William Ruto has tasked the National Defence University-Kenya (NDU-K) to develop strategies for addressing security challenges in different parts of the country.

President Ruto said this during the first graduation ceremony of the university located in Lanet Nakuru County, where 167 graduates of the pioneer class were feted in various disciplines.

The President singled out the Coast and Northern Kenya as regions that require the university's attention to deal with terrorism, radical extremism, and insecurity.

"We still have threats of terrorism and radical extremism that continue to put pressure on the security of regions and nations. Lamu and Northern Kenya are examples," said Ruto.

"These are areas where some students can develop a thesis to help inform our national strategy as we tackle these security challenges," he added.

Ruto highlighted the commitment of the government to improve security in the country and challenged the institution to contribute to this goal. With the government targeting to onboard all its services to digital platforms by the end of this year, Ruto further tasked the university to come up with efficient ways of curbing cyber security threats that may derail service delivery.

"Students out of this great university need to dig deep into finding ahead of time, the challenges that may come on our path to digitization and begin to design how we will tackle these challenges."

The President described the inaugural graduation at NDU-K as a milestone for Kenya and other countries with which Kenya collaborates on security matters.

Defence CS Aden Duale hailed the NDU-K, saying that it provides a platform for international collaboration to develop solutions to global challenges.

"This key milestone is a multisectoral platform for dialogue and exchange to find solutions to contemporary and emerging challenges," said Duale.

Education CS Ezekiel Machogu said the multisectoral collaboration between various ministries and government agencies would go a long way in the realisation of national aspirations.

"It is also our call that universities be creative in coming up with revenue streams of their own to complement the little that the government has allocated to them," said Machogu.

The pioneer class of NDU-K consists of military, police, and civilians drawn from various government entities, as well as military officers from other countries including India, Nepal, South Africa, Malawi, Uganda, Egypt, and South Sudan among others.

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