Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua while speaking during the official opening of this year’s Nation-Huawei Job Fair at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi on Thursday, December 15 said the government is considering replacing National Police Service (NPS) officers guarding key establishments with officers from the National Youth Service (NYS).
According to Gachagua, police officers need to be deployed across the country to fight banditry and crime.
“Going forward, we want to have a discussion with government ministries, parastatals and other corporations to have a concrete plan on how to remove our officers from the security forces to go and deal with crime, so we can have NYS personnel man those offices at a fee,” Gachagua stated.
Moreover, the deputy president stated that NYS officers are “disciplined” enough to man the premises which have for long been under the watch of the Kenya Police.
“It shouldn’t be free so that we can create a revolving fund to train more people. That is a conversation we want to have. We want our officers from the National Police Service to go and fight bandits and criminals, and the NYS personnel, because they are disciplined, they can do most of the work in terms of controlling people coming in and out of buildings,” he added.
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Gachagua further noted that the plan “has been there but nobody has really followed it up properly so that it becomes an official government policy.”
Nonetheless, NYS personnel began guarding Kenya Revenue Authority offices as well as all Huduma Centers countrywide in 2015.
This was part of a plan by the government to use the personnel in guarding major installations that had been under private guard.
Moreover, the youth service at the time said the move was to ensure that the trainees’ talents do not go to waste after leaving the service.
Furthermore, the NYS personnel were tasked with services like ticketing and crowd control at public events, security for private corporations, as well as selected government agencies such as the Kenya Ferry Service, Kenya Ports Authority, and airports.
