Major General Paul Owuor Otieno, Commander of the Kenya Navy, along with a four member delegation, visited Southern Naval Command (SNC), Kochi from 30 Sep – 02 Oct 2025 as part of his official visit to India.
During the visit, the Commander of the Kenya Navy interacted with Vice Admiral V Srinivas, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, and held discussions on avenues to enhance training engagement and maritime cooperation between the two Navies.
The visiting delegation was presented a brief overview of Indian Navy’s professional and operational training frameworks. In the deliberations, Major General Otieno appreciated the Indian Navy’s maiden initiative Indian Ocean Ship – Sagar (IOS Sagar), jointly crewed by personnel from nine IOR nations including Kenya, as a unique step towards regional maritime synergy.
He underscored the importance of strengthening regional cooperation, capability enhancement, and interoperability through training exchanges and adoption of best practices. The recent long-range training deployment of the First Training Squadron (1TS) to Mombasa was also noted as a significant milestone in bilateral ties.
The Kenyan delegation visited various training schools at SNC and witnessed demonstrations on advanced simulators and state-of-the-art training infrastructure. At Headquarters Sea Training, discussions focused on operational sea training and avenues for deeper training cooperation.
A visit to Fast Attack Craft, INS Kabra was also undertaken. At the Naval hospital INHS Sanjivani, the delegation was briefed on the wide range of multi-speciality medical facilities available. Indian Navy has been actively fostering maritime excellence with Kenya Navy through training endeavours since 1990.
The visit of the Commander of the Kenya Navy to SNC underscores the growing maritime partnership and reaffirms shared commitment of both Navies towards enhancing maritime security and regional stability.