NYS IN FRESH CRISIS AS GRADUATION DELAYED

Youth Service who had been programmed to graduate after their three- month training stint at the institute Gilgil in February, 2014 are yet to graduate due to logistical problems.

Six months down the lane, the recruits have not passed out and it is not clear when the graduation ceremony will be conducted as the NYS grapples to settle with its director, Nelson Githinji.

As NYS endevours to accept Githinji as its first non-paramilitary personality to head the institution in its four-decade history, the national government is scratching its head as to how it will continue maintaining the recruits in Gilgil.

According to sources, about Sh300 million is spent monthly to feed the recruits as well as the general upkeep and purchase of the training kits and uniforms.

Part of the reasons why the NYS recruits have delayed to pass out is that Githinji as a civilian was being undertaken through rigorous paramilitary groundwork before he can go public to preside over the graduation parade. Former director Kiplimo Rugut had been a longservicing official in the provincial administration.

Other sources indicated that the graduation issues has been put aside awaiting the decision from a team that saw Githinji replace Rugut as the service CEO.

Early this year, Devolution and National Planning Cabinet Secretary Ann Waiguru removed Rugut from the NYS docket and transferred him to a department in the central government.

This elicited public outcry and uproar from the Kalenjin community which described Rugut’s transfer as demeaning with Deputy President William Ruto terming it as normal shuffling of employees in the civil service.

Even the DP went a step further to describe Rugut’s change of position as a promotion while Nandi Hills MP Alfred Keter who led the opposition, calling on Kalenjin leaders to be firm on what he called selective discrimination of its community in distribution of resources and jobs in the public sector by the TNA-URP Jubilee government.

But fresh details are now emerging that NYS is deeply-stitched in rationalising positions after the exit of Rugut, a move that has given his successor Githinji sleepless nights.

Top on the intray is the loss of millions of shillings and the suspension of senior officials since the coming of Githinji into office barely six months ago.

Also being questioned is a trip recently made to South Africa by a senior NYS official at the expense of the taxpayers’ money.

Sources privy to the ongoings at NYS confided that the central government was divided over the Sh100 million targeted for the graduation ceremony.

While Ruto was bidding for the cash, President Uhuru Kenyatta through Waiguru is said to be opposed to the amount on the understanding that the institute had already been allocated its budget by the National Treasury.

Trouble is also said to be brewing within the NYS finance department following the interdiction of 12 accountants in the alleged connection with the disappearance of Sh39 million and Sh11 million in separate incidents.

Private and public investigators and auditors were said to be closing in on a Mr Ahenda as the head of the training section whose funds got lost in his glare that is now the issue on the spotlight. 

Other independent sources said two auditors, a Mr Wangu and a Mr Mutahi, who are both close family membersof a top government official, had implicated Rugut.