Ruto of Kenya: Appointed Major General Fatuma Gaiti Ahmed as the First Female Commander of the Air Force

By Abdul Rahman Bangura-

NEW AFRICA DAILY NEWS (NADN) Freetown, Sierra Leone– Major General Fatuma Gaiti was appointed in partnership with other leaders encompassing a fresh head of the armed forces, after the passing of the military chief and others in a helicopter crash last month.

Maj Gen Ahmed has held other firsts in the military leadership that is dominated by men – she was the first woman to rise to the rank of brigadier and major general. She joined the military in 1983, serving under the Women Service Corps, a woman-only outfit that operated as a separate body from the other arms of the defense forces.

They were a supplementary cursor service delivering support duties such as administrative work, logistics, medical and communication. The unit was disbanded in 1999 and it was only then that its members were permeated to join the main military services – the navy, air force and army.

The co-option of the unit provided more alternatives for women to participate in military duties and same granted women like Maj Gen Ahmed to rise through the ranks.

Her rise has been seen as an achievement in promoting gender equality in the armed forces.

In 2018, as she was being promoted to major general, then President Uhuru Kenyatta said he was counting on her “to be a positive role model to women in this country”.

“Prove to them that there are no limits for women,” the president said. Maj Gen Ahmed has once said, she was inspired to join the military by an uncle who was in the military, admiring his discipline and hard work that “shaped my life from a very early stage”

She said some of her family members discouraged her from joining the forces – “they said ‘that’s not a profession for women’”, she disclosed to the media. “But I was determined to make a difference in my life,” she stated.

New Africa Daily News Abdul Rahman Bangura Reports, Africa Correspondent