ROME – Senior leaders from the Massachusetts National Guard attended the African Land Forces Summit, or ALFS, in Rome, Italy, March 23-24, alongside senior leaders of the Kenya Defence Forces, marking more than a decade of partnership through the Department of War National Guard Bureau State Partnership Program, or SPP.
Hosted by the U.S. Army Southern European Task Force, Africa, or SETAF-AF, on behalf of the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, the annual summit brings African land force commanders together with U.S. and partner-national military leaders, as well as representatives from academia, government and industry. This year’s theme, “Empowering shared security through intelligence, innovation and industry,” emphasizes dual-use technologies and non-traditional partnerships.
“The 2026 African Land Forces Summit in Rome represents a significant milestone as a U.S. Army-led forum intentionally designed to connect African senior leaders with global industry expertise,” said Maj. Gen. Andrew C. Gainey, commanding general of SETAF-AF. “This summit emphasizes the integration of dual-use technology and capital investors with African land forces as we are looking to address an evolving security environment through industry and innovation.”
Maj. Gen. Gary Keefe, the adjutant general of the Massachusetts National Guard, and Command Sgt. Maj. Peter Pouliot, senior enlisted advisor to the adjutant general, joined Lt. Gen. David Ketter, the commander of the Kenyan Army, and Warrant Officer Class One Joel Murage, Kenyan Army sergeant major, during the annual forum, alongside more than 300 senior leaders and personnel from about 40 nations.
“This year’s Africa Land Forces Summit is focused on industry and what the United States, along with some of our partners in the defense industry, can produce and hopefully make available to our partners here,” Keefe said. “For the Massachusetts National Guard and Kenya, we have been looking at cyber capabilities, as well as unmanned aircraft systems and drones. This is not just a problem here in Africa. It is something we are dealing with in the United States as well. This is a global challenge, and together with our partners and allies, we need to figure out how we are going to counter these UAS activities.”
Since 2015, Massachusetts and Kenya have strengthened a broad partnership that includes joint military training, emergency response coordination, cybersecurity collaboration, medical missions and technology exchanges. Multinational exercises such as Justified Accord, led by U.S. Africa Command and managed by SETAF-AF, allow troops from both forces to train together, improve interoperability and refine skills.
The partnership also supports Kenya through mobile health facilities and the modernization of military equipment. Massachusetts National Guard experts have helped refurbish 144 M1117 armored vehicles acquired through the U.S. Excess Defense Articles program for counterterrorism operations. Collaboration extends to engineering and community projects, including road construction and the expansion of Kwa Njenga Primary School in Nairobi, which added modern classrooms and eased overcrowding for hundreds of students.
The State Partnership Program fosters enduring military-to-military relationships that strengthen global security, promote regional stability and enhance combined warfighting capabilities.
“Once we learn something, we go ahead and put it into the hands of our operators, but we are also seeing that adversaries are getting access to that same technology just as fast,” Keefe said. “Technology is evolving so rapidly that if we do not stay ahead of it, if we do not innovate and bring in defense industry partners as we did here at the Africa Land Forces Summit, we risk falling behind, and that will cost lives."