Major changes are expected at the National Youth Service (NYS) after President Uhuru Kenyatta issued directives to ensure the body is in shape. NYS has been in the middle of the storm in recent times, with corruption cases reported more than once. While presiding over the swearing-in of the newly appointed Youth and Gender Affairs Principal Secretary Dr. Francis Otieno Owino and Transport Principal Secretary Esther Koimett on Tuesday, President Kenyatta said NYS was never meant to be a conduit for enriching a few individuals, but a change agent for the lives of Kenyan youths.
In an earlier Cabinet meeting, the issue was also discussed and a restructuring of NYS to deal with the managerial and operational issues was agreed upon. The establishment of an oversight board which will make NYS a corporate body with a Director General as the CEO and a clean-up of the organization’s supply chain management function and reforms in its budgetary and internal audit sections were the key proposed changes.
President Kenyatta said the highest degree of integrity was expected from the newly appointed Principal Secretaries, and that they hold the final responsibility of all activities and actions in their respective departments. He stressed that every government officer must take full responsibility of their mandate.