Daniel Ishmael Opande (born 18 August 1943) is a retired Kenyan military officer, who rose to the rank of

Lieutenant General Lieutenant general (Lt Gen, LTG and similar) is a three-star military rank (NATO code OF-8) used in many countries. The rank traces its origins to the Middle Ages, where the title of lieutenant general was held by the second-in-command on the ...

in the

Kenyan Army The Kenya Army is the land arm of the Kenya Defence Forces. History The origin of the present day Kenya Army lie with the British Army's King's African Rifles. In the last quarter of the 19th Century the British began actively enforcing the aboli ...

Education

He is a graduate of the British Army's

Mons Officer Cadet School Mons Officer Cadet School was a British military training establishment for officer cadets in Aldershot from 1942 to 1972, when it was closed and all officer training concentrated at Sandhurst. Until 1960, it was known as the Mons Officer Cadet ...

, which he joined in 1963. Opande was commissioned as a Second Lieutenant on graduating from Mons in May 1964. Opande is also a graduate of the British Army's

Staff College, Camberley Staff College, Camberley, Surrey, was a staff college for the British Army and the presidency armies of British India (later merged to form the Indian Army). It had its origins in the Royal Military College, High Wycombe, founded in 1799, which i ...

and the U.S.

National Defense University The National Defense University (NDU) is an institution of higher education funded by the United States Department of Defense, intended to facilitate high-level education, training, and professional development of national security leaders. As ...

Fort Lesley J. McNair Fort Lesley J. McNair is a United States Army post located on the tip of Greenleaf Point, the peninsula that lies at the confluence of the Potomac River and the Anacostia River in Washington, D.C. To the peninsula's west is the Washington Cha ...

Washington DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...

Career

In 1979 he became the first commanding officer of

9 Kenya Rifles The 9th Battalion, Kenya Rifles is a light infantry battalion of the Kenya Army headquartered at Moi Barracks near Eldoret. Background The 9th Battalion was formed on 1 September 1979 when its members were pooled from existing Kenya Rifles Battali ...

, a newly formed infantry battalion. Opande later served as Deputy Force Commander with the

United Nations Transitional Assistance Group The United Nations Transition Assistance Group (UNTAG) was a United Nations (UN) peacekeeping force deployed from April 1989 to March 1990 in Namibia, known at the time as South West Africa, to monitor the peace process and elections there. Na ...

in Namibia (UNTAG) from 1989 to 1990. Before serving as UNTAG DFC, he had been the Kenyan Army's director of operations. He represented the Kenyan government in the negotiation of the Mozambique peace process from 1990 to 1993. He then was sent to Liberia as the Chief Military Observer of the

United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia The United Nations Observer Mission in Liberia (UNOMIL) was a United Nations peacekeeping mission in Liberia. It was established in Resolution 866 (1993) and headquartered in the capital Monrovia. UNOMIL was created as part of the Cotonou Agree ...

(UNOMIL) from 1993 to 1995. From 1995 to 2000, General Opande appears to have filled posts in Kenya, and likely served as Commandant of the National Defence College, Kenya's highest military institution, during that period. In 1998, General Opande, listed in Chinese sources as president of the Institute for National Defence, visited the

People's Republic of China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's most populous country, with a population exceeding 1.4 billion, slightly ahead of India. China spans the equivalent of five time zones and ...

. In 2000, General Opande was serving as Kenya's Vice-Chief of General Staff. He was appointed as Force Commander of the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone (UNAMSIL) in November 2000. He served as UNAMSIL Force Commander until 2003. In a letter to the UN Security Council dated 29 September 2003, the UN Secretary-General advised that Opande was to be appointed Force Commander of the newly established

United Nations Mission in Liberia The United Nations Mission in Liberia (UNMIL) was a peacekeeping operation established in September 2003 to monitor a ceasefire agreement in Liberia following the resignation of President Charles Taylor and the conclusion of the Second Liberia ...

(UNMIL). General Opande said in early 2004 that communications between the three UN peacekeeping missions in Sierra Leone, Liberia, and Côte d'Ivoire were quite good, and that the contact permitted exchanges of ideas at the highest level. He served as UNMIL Force Commander from 2003 to 2005. After that point, he appears to have retired. General Opande commented upon the establishment of the

United States Africa Command The United States Africa Command (USAFRICOM, U.S. AFRICOM, and AFRICOM), is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense, headquartered at Kelley Barracks, Stuttgart, Germany. It is responsible for U. ...

in June 2008. He said "Very little was really known by the majority of people or countries in Africa who were supposed to know before such a move was made," meaning that significant doubt was created as to the United States' actual intentions.

Legacy

In September 2008, General Opande donated a number of pieces of personal memorabilia to the Kenya National Archives.

References

External links

Secretary-General Appoints Lieutenant-General Daniel Opande of Kenya As Force Commander of United Nations Mission in Liberia SG/A/855, BIO/3539, 1 October 2003
*The Perspective

{{DEFAULTSORT:Opande, Daniel Personnel of the Kenya Army 1943 births Living people Graduates of the Mons Officer Cadet School