Inside Intelligence University, the region's pioneer security and research institution

The grant of Charter to the National Intelligence Research University (NIRU) last week by President William Ruto has positioned Kenya as a security research and innovation hub, providing intelligence to regional and African states.

In the very essence, intelligence is about adding value to decision making and Kenya has now opened its academic doors to education and research, positioning the country as a hub for intelligence education.

The university, ran by the National Intelligence Service (NIS), is positioned to provide specialised training and also conduct advanced research to equip intelligence officers with the skills needed to protect both national and regional interests.

The specialised fully-fledged university, which already has students from other African countries, readies Kenya and the continent to tackle evolving complex security dynamics, from the global terrorism threat to cyber threats and food security.

African university

During the charter granting ceremony held at State House last Tuesday, President Ruto said the institution is timely, noting that it will play a crucial role in filling the intelligence education and research gap in Africa and bolstering security capabilities.

“Chartering the National Intelligence Research University is especially timely as Kenya faces complex security challenges,” Ruto said.

He urged the institution to forge close collaboration with industry to ensure graduates are equipped to meet the country’s and regional evolving needs in fields like engineering, security, and digital innovation.

Speaking to The Sunday Standard after the award of a charter, NIRU Vice Chancellor James Kibon explained that the long journey to NIRU started with collaborations with other academic institutions.

It began with a postgraduate diploma in security and strategic studies at the University of Nairobi in the early 2000s.

Later, Dr Kibon said, the Service partnered with Strathmore University in offering courses starting with a Master’s Degree in Diplomacy, Intelligence and Security, the first cohort that graduated in 2019.

While these collaborations helped meet the academic training needs of the Service (NIS) at the time, the VC says growing demand birthed a need to establish its own university.
“There is a new melting point for diverse cultures of intelligence created in Kenya. NIRU is supporting Kenya and the continent in terms of leadership and matters of peace and security in the region,” Kibon said.

The VC said NIRU is specific on its mandate and intends to create a research-intensive university in addition to science, technology and innovation.

“The position of NIRU is an African university. It is in Kenya but the positioning is African to support the intelligence community. It exists to tell the African story and we are deliberate in terms of strategy,” he adds.

Kibon says the collapse of the Berlin Wall had a profound impact on global security and rather than the threat being driven externally, it seemed to come from internal sources and new wars started emerging, intra-state rather than interstate conflicts.

“At the time, the wind of change was sweeping and calls for accountability, particularly of the developing world democratising, intensified. Intelligence was no longer founded only on protecting the State against external aggression and there was a need for intelligence to not only recalibrate but also become more accountable,” Kibon said in the interview.

Against this backdrop, he says, there was need to establish the National Security and Intelligence Service (NSIS), a professional intelligence organisation accountable to Kenyans – professional to the extent that it could address the emerging threats.

Noordin Haji, the Director General of NIS and chair of the Board of Trustees of the university says the turn of the millennium necessitated the need to respond to the changing environment of threats.

“While our efforts have invariably contributed towards the professionalisation of intelligence, sustainability remained a challenge. We embarked on a process to establish a centre of excellence in intelligence research,” Haji said during the award of the charter.

Through Legal Notice No. 96 of June 11, 2021, the National Intelligence and Research University College was established as a constituent of the National Defence University – Kenya (NDU-K).

Kibon said that Kenya plays a critical role in terms of ensuring peace and security and by bringing different countries, NIRU is inputting a strategic culture in the region and continent. He said that with NIRU, countries will be harmonising different cultures in terms of addressing the threats that each face and establishing strategic contacts that will go a long way in bringing leaders together of various intelligence agencies in the region. Kibon also said this is also an avenue to establish homegrown solutions for intelligence in a cost-effective environment.

He said the university, socialised as it is, will not admit civilians and that it will draw its students from security outfits. And before admissions, students will undergo a rigorous vetting process to secure a slot.

The VC explains that the long journey to NIRU started with a postgraduate diploma in security and strategic studies at the University of Nairobi in early 2000s, which continued and was upgraded to a Master’s programme years later. By 2016, there was a huge backlog of students who had not graduated, yet they had completed their programmes.

“All groups had done their Master’s but had not graduated at the University of Nairobi. An agreement was made to suspend admissions,” he recounted.

“During this time, we saw a proliferation of intelligence studies programmes in the US, UK and other areas but in Africa, we did not have that. This conversation, therefore, came at a time when we decided to start our university,” Dr Kibon says.

The VC says as tis was happening, it was realised that whereas there was a lot of literature in the West speaking about intelligence programmes and activities in Africa, there was no African voice.

It all started in 2019, a technical committee to work on the establishment of a university, comprising technical experts from the industry and academicians, was formed to develop proposed programmes for the university and work on the accreditation of the university.

One of the major outcomes of that stakeholder engagement was that officers were well trained but there was a gap at the strategic level, thus four broad areas were identified, which required development of programmes.

The areas identified were strategic intelligence studies, intelligence, security and policy studies, strategic intelligence communication and how intelligence and technology interact. Out of these, four programmes were developed.

The breakout of the Covid-19 pandemic slowed down the process but it still continued. As this happened, the Department of Defense was in the process of starting a university, now the National Defence University of Kenya (NDU-K).

Kibon says a decision was made at the National Security Council that only one university would be accredited, so NDU-K was picked.

First cohort

“NIRU became a constituent college of NDU-K.  The guidance from the National Security Council was that instead of having the two charters, we grant one institution, then the other one becomes a constituent college. So, our legal order was gazetted on June 11, 2021,” he explains. With the gazettement of the legal order as a constituent college of NDU-K, work on its structure commenced to institutionalise and implement it.

As a constituent college, the first cohort of Masters in Strategic Intelligence Studies with 15 students was admitted in 2022. The Masters of Arts in Intelligence, Security and Policy Studies also had 15 students, all were Kenyans from the NIS.

In 2023, the second group came in, comprising 20 students. The programmes covered were Master of Arts in Strategic Intelligence Communication and the Master of Science in Technology and Intelligence Studies. Some 11 students studied the technology programme while nine others pursued the communication programme.

This cohort is set to graduate at the NDU-K in two week’s time.