However the plan to set up the unit was mooted immediately Kenya gained its independence when on October 14, 1964 forty officers were sent to Britain for Parachute Basic Training Course at Royal Air Force Base, Abingdon.

[citation needed] Notably this little known unit is thought to be independently run by Kenya's Directorate of Military Intelligence and thus not under Army Special Operations Brigade.

The SOTS runs as an independent arm within the regiment and it is filled with local trainers who graduated from the first batch at the Army National Guard Warrior Training Center at Fort Benning.

Language skills are mandatory in the 30th SF and members are expected to be well versed with details on power grids, water supplies, roads and host community politics when deployed thus the threshold for potential recruits is higher with a mean score of C+ in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education.

The operation was launched as an attempt to crush a three year insurgency in the Mount Elgon District by the Sabaot Land Defence Force and was successful.

They were also involved in the killing of top SLDF commanders Raphael Bera and David Sichei in fighting at caves around Mount Elgon the previous month.

They have seen extensive action in Somalia during Operation Linda Nchi and the subsequent rehatting to AMISOM with their most notable achievement being an amphibious landing at the port city of Kismayo.

The pre-dawn operation was launched on 28 September 2012 with an amphibious landing from seven Kenyan naval ships at a beach north of the city.