Recently appointed Chief of Defence Forces, Francis Ogolla, on Thursday stepped out to perform his first duty at a National Day fete.
Ogolla, who was on May 14 promoted to a full general by President William Ruto and named CDF, was at Moi Stadium Embu for the Madaraka Day Celebrations.
He succeeded retired CDF Robert Kibochi.
The CDF for the first time since his appointment, escorted the President after inspecting the guard of honour mounted by the Kenya Defence Forces.
President Ruto had revealed that he appointed Ogolla despite advice from his allies to ignore him.
“Many things in my system outweighed the mistake that he had done,” he said.
The President said during a TV interview that while he had over 10 choices, he settled on Ogolla consciously because of his track record and rich experience.
Defending his decisions in making state appointments, Ruto said his appointment of Ogolla shows that he values merit over the tribe.
“I appointed General Ogolla. General Ogolla was among the people who went to Bomas to try to overturn my victory,” he said during an interview at State House.
“But when I looked at his CV, he was the best person to be general.”
Ruto said he sat down with Ogolla and reminded him how he had gone to Bomas to try to overturn his victory.
“I had 10 choices, I could have appointed anybody, I decided against the advice of many people, they told me you should not reward this kind of behaviour,” he said.
“He told me I made a mistake and I have no defence, do what you want, what I did was wrong.”
Ruto said Ogolla might have made a mistake because the then commander-in-chief had told him to go to Bomas but he was the most qualified general.
“I am so conscious that since independence, nobody from Nyanza has ever been a CDF, it also played in my mind that I don’t want a situation where a community think that they can’t occupy a certain office,” he said.
