Richard Pankhurst dates the formation of the Imperial Bodyguard (previously known as the Mehal Sefari) to 1917, when the Regent Ras Tafari (later the Emperor Haile Selassie) assembled a unit under his direct control from men who had trained in the British army in Kenya as well as a few who had served under the Italians in Tripoli.

It was commanded by Ethiopian graduates of Saint Cyr, the French military academy, at the time of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia.

One of these was Kosrof Gorgorios Boghossian, a colonel in the Kebur Zabagna and of Armenian descent, who was the father of noted artist Skunder Boghossian[3][4] Following the return of Emperor Haile Selassie to Ethiopia, the Kebur Zabagna was reconstituted, and a Swedish military mission aided in its training.

"It remained the elite force of the empire," notes historian Bahru Zewde, "until discredited in the wake of the attempted coup of 1960."

During the state visits of Elizabeth II and Mohammad Reza Pahlavi to Ethiopia, Emperor Hail Selassie's Silver Jubilee Golden State Carriage was drawn by team of six Lippizaner horses and accompanied by 100 Imperial Guard on horseback in red and green uniforms.