The college has today, the 20th July 2015, officially started a one year Senior Command and Staff Course 04. This is the 4th Intake since the College was inaugurated in 2012 and is composed of 48 Senior Officers from RDF and allied countries namely Burundi, Kenya, Malawi, South Sudan, the United Republic of Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
While opening the course, Brig Gen Charles Karamba, the Commandant of the College started his remarks by congratulating all those who have been selected to attend this prestigious career course. He reiterated to the allied students that the college will be their home for the next one year and they are encouraged to share their wealth of knowledge and experiences. The commandant reminded the students that they will learn two concurrent course packages; the core curriculum military package and the masters in security studies package. He said “The military package entails vigorous training in the form of theoretical and practical concepts in the Art and Science of warfare in order to improve your knowledge and skills in command and control of Defense Forces at operational level of war; whilst the Masters in Security Studies package enhances your understanding of security in its holistic form and nature”.
The opening ceremony was preceded by a week-long pre-course training for the whole course and a familiarization tour for allied students. For a period of 46 weeks, the college faculty and staff will vigorously endeavor to achieve its main objective ‘To produce officers with the requisite analytical and communication skills as well as a professional military knowledge in command and leadership at operational level’.
RDF Command and Staff College was inaugurated three years ago and has so far hosted 3 Senior Command and Staff Courses and graduated 138 students including 16 allied students. It has also graduated 2 Junior Command and Staff Courses of 72 Students. The College is accredited to the University of Rwanda and offers a Masters of Arts degree and Postgraduate diploma in Security Studies.