President William Ruto with Chief of Defense Forces Francis Ogolla at a previous function.
General Francis Omondi Ogolla, who will be buried today at his home in Siaya, was not supposed to ascend to the military's top job, although he was just a step away, having served as Vice Chief of Defence Forces and coming from the Kenya Air Force, which was poised to take over at the helm of the forces.
The odds were stacked against him: His name was not even among those initially sent to President William Ruto for consideration, and he had a huge cloud hanging over him after the August 2022 presidential election.
Gen Ogolla, then vice KDF chief, had accompanied a National Security Advisory Committee (NSAC) team to the national tallying centre at Bomas of Kenya, where former Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC) boss Wafula Chebukati later said he was asked to declare opposition leader Raila Odinga the winner of the election, or force a run-off between President Ruto and the former prime minister.
More on this in a moment.
The late Chief of Defence Forces, General Francis Omondi Ogolla.
In fresh revelations during the Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) military honours and memorial service at Ulinzi Sports Complex in Lang'ata, Nairobi, President Ruto hinted that those close to him had warned him that the CDF was such a crucial post that he needed to think carefully before naming anyone.
And for these unnamed people, President Ruto said, Gen Ogolla was not the man for the job.
So, the President continued, he called Gen Ogolla for a one-on-one 'come to Jesus' meeting with the decorated jet fighter pilot with more than four decades of experience and sat him down with the topic being the events at Bomas and the IEBC's allegations about what it meant.
"When we went for that meeting, General Ogolla told me: 'Mr President, I have no defence. I will not try to defend myself; it was wrong what I did,'" President Ruto recalled the military chief saying at the meeting.
"He gave me three choices: either send him to court-martial, retire him or forgive him."
President Ruto said after the meeting, he reflected on the matter and related it to his tribulations that saw him dragged to the International Criminal Court, together with former President Uhuru Kenyatta, and four others, for what the ICC said was bearing the greatest criminal responsibility for the 2007/2008 post-election violence that led to the deaths of 1,600 Kenyans and the displacement of nearly 600,000 others, following a disputed election that pitted Mr Odinga and President Mwai Kibaki.
The advice on the sensitivity of the CDF seat, he said, even included advice “to appoint from his community; to be safe”, but argued he went against them—with a conscious decision where “merit, professionalism, and competence come before ethnicity”, with Gen Ogolla exemplifying the best of them.
“Gen Ogolla’s appointment as CDF is one I am very, very proud to have made. He stood head and shoulders among the finest of exemplary public servants. It has been an extraordinary privilege to work closely with him, to benefit from his wisdom, experience and insights, and to witness him in action, serving his nation with admirable commitment and providing excellent command leadership of the Kenya Defence Forces,” said President Ruto.
President William Ruto gives final respect to the late CDF Francis Ogolla.
A State House official aware of the events of that meeting says Gen Ogolla had produced communication between him and the NSAC team, where he had protested that the mission at Bomas had changed from a security one to a political one, but was ignored, and stayed on.
Mr Odinga, in his speech at the memorial service, also referred to the event, saying the stigma that had hung around the military boss after the event was unnecessary and should be put to rest.
“I knew this man very well. Gen Ogolla would never have contemplated about going to the Bomas of Kenya to force (former IEBC chief Wafula) Chebukati to alter the results of the last General Elections. We want this stigma removed as we lay him to rest,” said Mr Odinga.
For Gen Ogolla, the Bomas visit not only put a blight on his illustrious career—including being a subject of the Supreme Court presidential election petition—but also now then became subject of discussion within the State House and government circles on how President Ruto picked him over other choices.
"I could have appointed anybody I had I think 10 choices, people say that I appointed Ogolla because he was the deputy CDF, but that is not the case. I made the decision consciously and I made it against the advice of many people," President Ruto had said of the matter in a May 2023 interview.
The family of the late General Francis Ogolla next to the remains during the military honours and memorial service.
At the Supreme Court, President Ruto’s legal team and that of Mr Chebukati, as the poll’s national returning officer, cited the visit as one of the evidence an attempt was made to interfere with the polls, allegations the committee rejected as untrue.
"l categorically deny Chebukati's insinuation that l arranged a meeting between him and the members of the NSAC with a view to influencing the outcome of the presidential election held on August 9, 2022, in favour of a particular candidate," former Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua, who chaired NSAC, said in an affidavit.
But for Gen Ogolla, his appointment to the helm of the military even with the Bomas cloud hanging over his head gave him a chance to prove his stellar plan of ‘One force, one mission’ and he had rolled out fresh plans for the forces that President Ruto said were going to alter the military—for good.
“I regret that he will not to be there to witness his plans come to fruition,” the head of state said.
Going down in history as the first general to die while in office and in active military duty, Gen Ogolla bows out with his head held high: Kenya’s 10th military boss who rose above what would have been career-ending political noise to roll out one of the most visionary plans, and an unyielding bid to change the terms of service for the officers and soldiers.
