Bernard Kamondo

Manager
Kenya Forestry Seed Centre, Kenya Forestry Research Institute (KEFRI)

Kamondo Bernard holds Msc. in Tropical Forestry (Wageningen Agricultural College, The Netherlands) and a Bsc. in Forestry (Moi University) with over 36 years work experience in tree seed production. Kamondo worked for a period of over 10 years in a GTZ funded project – The Kenya Forestry Seed Centre Project where he was instrumental in putting in place a formal tree seed supply system in Kenya. Between 1996 and 1998, he was a team member of the ICRAF Germplasm Resource Unit (GRU) advisory committee. He also honed his skills in project development, monitoring and evaluation as a Secretariat Officer for the Plant Genetic Resources Working Group housed at the National Museums of Kenya.

Between 1997 and 2000, he backstopped efforts that successfully developed a Royal Botanic Gardens Kew funded ten years plant genetic resources conservation project implemented from 2000 to 2010 by Government of Kenya Agencies. Thereafter, he led the East African Sandalwood Research Program at KEFRI to solve its propagation challenges for domestication on-farm. Kamondo has received KEFRI Board of Directors commendations for Employee of the year at Central Highlands Ecoregion Research Programme (2015); Excellent service (2015 & 2014), and special award in scientific category (2014). In 2019, Kamondo was reappointed as Manager of the Kenya Forestry Seed where he is coordinating the work on tree seed quality control, tree seed research, generation of information on quality tree seed and training.