Former Directorate of Intelligence and Security Services Director General Isaac Kgosi’s brother and the army’s intelligence high command were redeployed last week in a major shake-up of the Botswana Defence Force.
Among those who have been redeployed is Colonel Shadrack Kgosi who has been moved from his position as deputy commander of the Botswana Defence Force (BDF) Number One Infantry Brigade which is made up of Gaborone ground forces. Colonel Kgosi was believed to be loyal to his brother and former President Lt Gen Ian Khama. The Sunday Standard can reveal that on the eve of former DIS Director General Isaac Kgosi’s ouster, Colonel Kgosi was swiftly dispatched to India on a short course as part of the operation to ensure that the plan to ambush his brother was surgical.
Colonel Kgosi has been redeployed to an office job at headquarters as Deputy Director Research and Development. The redeployment weans him from the command of the ground forces to office work were he will be shuffling papers.
Chief of Military Intelligence, Col Cullen Nkete has been redeployed as Deputy Director Defence Intelligence (training and Ops). There has been speculation about Col Nkete’s allegiances and his relationship with the current DISS Director General, Peter Magosi was reported to be strained. Nkete who took over from Magosi as Chief of Military Intelligence fell out with his predecessor for allegedly compromising the security of MI spies. The relationship was so strained that Brig Magosi refused to hand over some intelligence officers to his successor Col Cullen Nkete. Sunday Standard has established that at a meeting of the BDF command July 2014 Brig Magosi was grilled on why he had not handed over one of the MI agents to his successor, but Brig Magosi maintained that he could not do so because the new command was compromising MI agents.
In intelligence speak, compromising intelligence agents means breaking their cover and exposing them to being discovered by the agents. Brig Magosi allegedly charged that Lt Gen Gaolathe had allowed Col Nkete to compromise the security of MI agents initially deployed by Brig Magosi to infiltrate criminal syndicates.
He allegedly cited the incident of one MI operative who had managed to infiltrate drug syndicates only to have his security breached by the new MI command. The row over the security breach of MI agents came at a time when the army rank and file was in a state of panic that the agency may have been infiltrated by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA).
This followed information that the MI boss is married to an American envoy, Marlene Nkete whose job requirements entailed basic training in counter intelligence by the American Security Office. Marlene Nkete is the Public Private Partnership advisor at the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) which has long been a front for CIA intelligence gathering, as well as a conduit for CIA funding to foreign government agencies. As part of her job requirements, Marlene Nkete also has to demonstrate “unswerving loyalty” to America, the US Security Office has revealed. Marlene Nkete has however not renewed her contract with the American Embassy.
Nkete will be replaced by Col Bernard Semausu as the new Chief of Military Intelligence.
As redeployed is Nkete’s former boss Brigadier Jansen who has been moved from his position as Director Defence intelligence (DDI) to Corps of to Corps of Mechanical Engineers (Logistics). Brigadier Jansen has been replaced by Brig. Modise Tlhage.
The appointments which should have been made earlier this year were delayed because the President is alleged to have had differences with the army command.
