Kena Mphonda

Kena Mphonda is a career diplomat and currently the Malawi High Commissioner^[1][2][3] to the United Kingdom.^[4][5][6] He was appointed on 14 March 2015.^[7][8] He succeeded Bernard Sande in 2015. He presented his credentials to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom on 18 October 2015.^[9]

Mphonda is also concurrently accredited to Iceland, Ireland, Finland, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, and Malta. He presented credentials to the President of Malta, Marie Louise Coleiro Preca, on 19 October 2015.^[10][11]

He studied at Chancellor College in Malawi where he obtained a Bachelor of Arts degree in 1984, obtained a Master of Arts degree in International Affairs at Ohio University at Athens in 1991. He was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow in International Relations at the American University in Washington DC in 1997/8.

He has previously served in Washington DC at the Malawi Embassy as Deputy Ambassador^[12][13][14] and as Second Secretary in Bonn, Germany.

He has also served as Chief of Protocol^[15] for the Government of Malawi under late President Bingu wa Mutharika, ex President Joyce Banda and the current President, His Excellency Prof. Peter Arthur Mutharika.

For a couple of years, he also served in the Ministry of Finance and the Office of the President and Cabinet^[16] in Malawi.^[17] In 2018 he was awarded the 2018 Diplomat of the year for Africa in London.^[18]

He is married to Mary Chokani, an Instructional Designer who has a passion for wildlife.^[19]

Son to A.H. Mphonda, one of the first Malawian authors to publish school books with Miyambi Yatsopano^[20] as the most known in secondary education.^[21] His brother, Alick Mphonda,^[22] is a graduate of Australian National University^[23] working with the National Statistical Office in Malawi as a senior Statistician.^[24]