Major General Joseph Ndolo was a former Chief of the General Staff and the first African to head the armed forces of Kenya.

Career

Ndolo was a member of the

King's African Rifles The King's African Rifles (KAR) was a multi-battalion British colonial regiment raised from Britain's various possessions in East Africa from 1902 until independence in the 1960s. It performed both military and internal security functions withi ...

. At the time of his enlistment Ndolo was working in a plantation in Moshi, Tanzania. He was placed into the 6th Battalion which found its way to Sri Lanka. By the time the second world war had ended Ndolo had risen to the rank of Sergeant in the King's African Rifles. He sought a transfer back to Kenya after being commissioned as Lieutenant, then Captain and finally Major. He was promoted to Lieutenant Colonel in 1963 and appointed Commanding Officer of the 5th Battalion, Kenya Rifles. He was the first African to head a regiment in East and Central Africa. In 1969 he attained the rank of Major General and appointed as the first African Chief of General Staff. Ndolo would only last two years after he was implicated in a coup plot against then president

Jomo Kenyatta Jomo Kenyatta (22 August 1978) was a Kenyan anti-colonial activist and politician who governed Kenya as its Prime Minister from 1963 to 1964 and then as its first President from 1964 to his death in 1978. He was the country's first indigenous ...

, as he had been named as a possible successor. He resigned his post and

Jackson Mulinge Jackson Kimeu Mulinge was a Kenyan military officer, and Chief of the General Staff in the 1980s. He was the longest serving head of Kenya's Armed Forces and the first Kenyan military officer to attain the rank of four-star general. Early life Mu ...

was promoted in his place.

References

Personnel of the Kenya Army {{DEFAULTSORT:Ndolo, Joseph