Public Service Cabinet Secretary (CS) Moses Kuria on Wednesday announced plans by the government to transform around 1,500 rural-based polytechnics into branches of the National Youth Service (NYS).
During an interview on Wednesday, Kuria revealed that these are some of the discussions took place after the three-day Cabinet retreat in Naivasha on Wednesday.
“Around 1,500 polytechnics are going to be branches of NHIF. These young men will be assigned there and they will be working with other youth in the village and use available infrastructure to build their skills,” Kuria said on Citizen TV.
However, this is subject to approval by the Council of Governors (CoG).
Speaking on the recent concluded NYS recruitment exercise, CS Kuria attributed himself to a substantial contribution in ensuring the success of the recent NYS recruitment exercise, asserting that he devised a robust strategy to ensure a transparent process.
He revealed that he was the one who gave a formula and instructions to recruit at the ward level based on population density.
"I am the first person to do recruitment fairly and equally based on a scientific empirical formula,” Kuria said.
Also, the former Gatundu South MP mentioned that he employed census data to evaluate the population density in each ward.
This approach enabled him to allocate the appropriate percentages of individuals to be recruited from those specific wards.
“We have got the population density as per the census for every ward and then I assigned them some percentage. Math is my forte so I told them no…this particular ward has this density and these are the people,” Kuria said.
The NYS recruitment took place from February 5-9, 2024, seeking to have at least 15,000 recruits.
Kuria had earlier assured that he would stand up and protect the rights of the children of the poor in the country, by ensuring they get their rightful share of the 15,000 slots.
The CS reiterated that no amount of intimidation will make him change his mind on ensuring fairness in the recruitment process.
Kuria noted that a few anomalies were reported on the first day of the National Youth Service (NYS) volunteer recruitment across the country.
He, however, did not disclose what kind of anomalies they were but assured Kenyans that he would address all of them amicably.
Youths who have tattoos were on Tuesday turned away from the National Youth Service recruitment exercise.
Despite most of them qualifying for the recruitment, they had tattoos on their backs and shoulders which cut them out.
The youths who had turned up for the recruitment said most of them had tattoos while in high school.