Mentorship Programmes and Military Performance among the Kenya Defence Forces

This paper presents an attempt to understand the relationship between mentorship programmes and military performance among the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF). In today’s realm of strategic studies, mentorship is the foundation of any nation’s military professionalism and is usually the fabric of organization culture and leadership. This paper interrogates the contribution of organization culture and leadership. This paper interrogates the contribution of mentorship programmes to military performance among the KDF. This is achieved through the analysis of the efficacy of the  mentorship programme for leadership development in the Kenya analysis of the efficacy of the mentorship programme for leadership development in the Kenya Defence Forces with the aim of proffering strategies for enhancing leadership development. The article is anchored on the Servant Leadership Theory. A literature review was conducted, and questionnaires and Key Informant Interviews were held. The study established that in KDF the mentorship programmes have not been effective. The concept is unstructured and unknown to many members of KDF. The findings, however, indicate that a well-structured program leads to improved performance, efficiency, and effectiveness. Equally, mentorship programs in KDF foster commitment and retention in service. The study concludes that dedicated mentorship programmes can be executed in smaller group units and sub-branches. There is a need to institutionalize the program through a policy, as currently, only informal mentorship frameworks exist. KDF needs to deliberately initiate strategies to ground this concept amid the financial commitment that comes with it.

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