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]