Mentorship Programmes and Military Performance Among the Kenya Defence Forces

Mentorship is the foundation of any nations’ military professionalism and is usually the fabric of its organizational culture and leadership. Mentorship is particularly valuable for leadership development because it provides a safe space for the mentee to ask questions, seek advice, and receive feedback. Despite having the above-mentioned mix of ingredients for leadership development, mentorship has not been fully seized in the militaries as a useful tool for developing human capital. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to examine the existing mentorship programmes in the Kenya Defence Forces (KDF), and assess their efficacy for leadership development in the Kenya Defence Forces. The objective of this study is to examine the concept of mentorship and its influence to leadership development in KDF. The thesis was anchored on the Servant Leadership Theory. Servant Leadership Theory is a leadership philosophy that emphasizes leaders’ responsibility to serve and empower their followers or team members, rather than asserting authority or control over them. The study established that, in KDF, mentorship programmes were not effective. The concept was unstructured and not properly operationalized. However, it was established that if properly implemented, mentorship programmes can be a powerful command tool for effective KDF leadership development. This can be achieved through a well-structured programme which in turn will lead to improved performance, efficiency and effectiveness. Equally, mentorship programmes in KDF foster commitment and retention in service. The study concluded that KDF being a fairly large and diverse organization, mentorship programmes can be executed in smaller groups units and sub-branches. There is need to institutionalize the programme through a policy because currently, only informal mentorship framework exists. KDF needs to deliberately initiate strategies to ground this concept amid the operational and financial commitments.