KDF Cadet Requirements: How can I Increase Chances of Being Recruited as a KDF Cadet?

 KDR cadet recruitment requirements are quite stringent. You are expected to have solid academic grades, on top of near-perfect physical and mental health -- coupled with clean citizenship records. By solid academic grades, we mean something in the B plain to B+ range in KCSE [though having an A- or an A plain wouldn't do any harm], and with good grades in English, Mathematics and the Sciences.

Increasingly, folks who already have degrees in various fields are applying for and being absorbed into KDF, both as GSO (General Service Officer) cadets and as specialist cadets. For the General Service Officer cadet position, my understanding is that the basic academic requirement is for you to only have solid KCSE grades. You know, the A and B grades we made reference to earlier. Upon recruitment as a KDF GSO cadet, you would probably be put through a Bachelor of Science (Military Science) degree program, which runs alongside advanced military training. So this is to say that the folks who are recruited into KDF as cadets need to be the so-called ‘university material’ people. On the other hand, we are informed that folks who join as KDF specialist cadets (medical officers, chaplains, cartographers, surveyors, educationists, accountants, lawyers e.t.c) are only taken through a relatively brief but somewhat intensive military training program, before  being commissioned. It is the ones who join as General Service Officer cadets who undergo the 3-year military science degree program, at the end of which they are commissioned as Second Lieutenants.

Because of competition though, we are increasingly seeing folks who already have degrees in other fields (and whose ages haven’t gone above the maximum required) applying for KDF General Service Officer cadet jobs. They still have to undergo the military science degree program as a second degree for themselves. 

I once heard someone suggesting the KDF cadet program should, in fact, be a postgraduate program – meaning that only folks with degrees should be admitted in the first place. But I guess that such views were ultimately discarded, as insisting on only hiring folks with degrees would deny the defense people the chance to recruit the younger, fresher and more malleable minds that tend to make better career soldiers… Nonetheless, all factors being constant, if you already have a degree in some field and you are below the required age bracket (I think the maximum is 26 or 28 or thereabouts), and you apply for a Kenya Defense Forces cadet position, then the degree would be an added advantage.

Ultimately, if you wish to increases chances of being recruited as a KDF cadet, you firstly need to work real hard at school. You need to get above B plain, ideally a B+ or even one of the A grades.

If you wish to increase chances of being recruited into KDF as an officer cadet, you need to ensure that you don’t mess up with your physical or mental health. Avoid fights that are likely to leave you with bad scars or with broken teeth, as you will be thoroughly inspected before being admitted to the KDF cadet program. Avoid drinking too much alcohol or smoking too much and avoid things like muguka, miraa, bhang and other stuff that is likely to mess up with your mental health. The medical tests that you are subjected to prior to be admitted into KDF as a cadet are capable of detecting those things (or at least detecting the effect that those things have on your health).

Further, if you wish to increase chances of being recruited into KDF as an officer cadet, it is important for you to ensure that you don’t get involved in unlawful activities. You have to understand that you will be subjected to quite rigorous vetting, and if your records are not clean, it may deny you an otherwise very prestigious and lucrative opportunity to eventually work as a KDF commissioned officer.