Why height, weight are crucial in KDF recruitment – Defence CS Duale

CS Duale says that even though the two components of body physique appear to be of little consequence to citizens, they are unequally important in the military.

Speaking during an interview with Citizen TV's Rashid Abdalla on Thursday, Duale explained that the laid out weight limit of 54.5kg for men and 50kg for women was mainly to ensure the candidates are durable throughout the training exercise. 

According to the CS, standard military training in Kenya entails carrying huge masses of more than 20 kilograms and thus a person who is underweight might hurt themselves or in extreme circumstances, die during the process.

“Some people do not understand it when they are told they cannot join because of the failure to attain a certain weight,” he explained.

“There is a certain weight range that if you are below it, you cannot be allowed to join the armed forces. This is because, during training, you carry heavy weights of about 20 or 25 kilograms. If you are underweight, you may die during the training.”

In the same light, the Defence minister explained that height was inequivalent important as weight, but KDF over the years had been lenient with candidates, occasionally allowing shorter candidates. This he said was done with a set minimum height.

The current minimum height requirement for men is 1.60m (5ft 3in) while that of women is 1.52m (5ft).

Duale argues that activities such as parades and the carrying of certain weapons called for a certain uniformity in regard to height.

Rashid had raised concern that some regions and communities in the country may have been biologically disadvantaged physically, which means that the number of people recruited might be less in a certain area than those who have a majority of their candidates attaining the requisite height.

The CS in his response said: “Joining the military is different from joining other government departments because it has specific requirements; the height is not mainly focused on and we have been a bit lenient on that…we have put it under certain reforms. There are still short people in the military but there is a certain height we cannot allow,” he stated. 

“The armed force has a parade, weapons to carry and other things.”

Consequently, he reassured the public that his leadership would ensure equality in terms of regional, county, community and gender during the recruitment and that no cases of corruption would be tolerated.

“We will ensure every region and community is equally represented in the forces. We want the posture of our KDF to have every community regardless of where they come from, their religion, tribe or their county. Everyone will have equal opportunities in the recruitment,” he emphasized.

“The difference between the KDF recruitment and other security institutions is that our court martial has zero tolerance to corruption.”

He added: “We have included women in the military. Initially, they were referred to as women corps but nowadays they are taken in the same way as men.”