Kenya Defence College students tour Rwanda

A delegation of twelve senior officers from the Kenyan National Defence College yesterday met top Rwanda Defence Force officials to discuss regional security issues.The officers from different countries undergoing military training in different courses at the Kenyan college are in Rwanda on a one-week study tour.They are expected to visit different government institutions and military academies. The officers hail from Kenya, South Africa, South Sudan and Malawi.The students led by Brig. Gen. Mulata Adan Kanchoro are in the final stages of their studies at the college and are now doing the practicals to ascertain how to handle military issues.Addressing the media at the RDF headquarters after the dialogue, military spokesperson, Brig. Gen. Joseph Nzabamwita said that the visitors were interested in knowing the RDF’s role in peace building not only on national but also on international level.“Regional security is their role and it is the mandate of RDF. However, we discussed regional security matters and the way Rwanda supports all the peace initiatives especially ones that are championed by the International Conference on Great lakes region,” said Nzabamwita.He added that the tour is aimed at enriching their courses especially establishing how regional armies dispense their mandate of securing respective countries.Recently the ICGLR, a regional bloc of 11 countries including Rwanda, established the Joint Verification Mechanism (JVM), as part of efforts to resolve the recurrent conflicts in eastern DRC.The Mechanism includes a team of 24 senior military officers drawn from all the member states, with Rwanda and DRC contributing three officers each, while the others sent two officers each.The ICGLR is composed of Angola, Burundi, Central African Republic (CAR), DRC, Republic of Congo, Kenya, Rwanda, Sudan, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.