Act­ing Chief of De­fence Staff, T&T De­fence Force Colonel Ken­rick Ma­haraj has been pro­mot­ed to the rank of Brigadier Gen­er­al. Ma­haraj re­ceived his in­stru­ments of ap­point­ment last Fri­day from Min­is­ter of Na­tion­al Se­cu­ri­ty Brigadier John Sandy (re­tired) at the min­istry's head of­fice, Aber­crom­by Street, Port-of-Spain.

He brings to the post over 30 years of ser­vice in the T&T De­fence Force. He was Op­er­a­tions Of­fi­cer when Sandy was vice Chief of Staff of the De­fence Force.

His ex­pe­ri­ence in­clud­ed be­ing the Com­man­der and Chief Staff Of­fi­cer of the Re­gion­al Task Force and the Cari­com Op­er­a­tions Plan­ning and Co­or­di­nat­ing Staff, re­spec­tive­ly, dur­ing the Crick­et World Cup 2007.

Ma­haraj's most re­cent as­sign­ment was that of Di­rec­tor of Op­er­a­tions, Plan­ning and Co­or­di­nat­ing Staff for the Fifth Sum­mit of the Amer­i­c­as in Port-of-Spain in 2009.