She is one of the few women in Kenya who have shattered the proverbial glass ceiling to rise to the top military command.
In the rank of a one-star general, Brigadier Caroline Mwende Mutisya is one of the most powerful women not only in the Kenya Army but across the entire Kenya Defence Forces.
In 2021, she was promoted by President Uhuru Kenyatta to the rank of a Brigadier and appointed seconded to the Kenya Airspace Agency.
The veteran Kenya Army officer would later find herself at the KDF headquarters as the new director of strategic policy and planning at the military top command.
In her position, she is at the heart of giving KDF a strategic direction and formulation of policies to enhance the implementation of its plans.
She has extensive expertise in national and regional security matters. In 2017, while holding the rank of Major, she received the Outstanding Thesis Award from the Department of National Security Affairs at the Naval Postgraduate School for her research on the securitization of the Kenya–Somalia border.
Brigadier Mutisya has represented the KDF in high-level engagements with international partners.