Chuka youths protest over NYS jobs

What you need to know:

  • The officers are accused of leaving early without concluding the exercise.
  • Youths claim they were offered less pay than they were promised.

Rowdy youths from Chuka Igambang’ombe Constituency demonstrated in Chuka Town during recruitment by the National Youth Service, criticizing the criteria used to fill the 1,440 vacancies.

The angry youths said that the recruitment was riddled with corruption since the officers did not select from locations as directed by their MP Muthomi Njuki.

The exercise, which started at around 11am, ran for only three hours. The recruiting officers went for lunch, promising the youths they would be back after one hour, but failed to return.

The frustrated youths started doubting the transparency of the exercise and, after waiting until 5pm, decided to protest.

Speaking to the media, a one of those affected, Daniel Mwambia, said that most of them arrived at the scene as early as 6am hoping to get the job but nearly twelve hours later he did not know his fate.

“We have found some of our identity card photocopies thrown on the road and we have heard that people have already been selected and the officers did not come back after breaking for lunch,” said Mr Mwambia.

The youths were also unhappy with the amount of money they were promised as pay, saying Mr Njuki had said they would be earning Sh612 per day and but the officers told them that they would be paid Sh470 per day with Sh170 going to the NYS Sacco.

When contacted, Mr Njuki said they are supposed to be paid Sh612 and not Sh470.

The angry youths demanded for a repeat of the recruitment exercise and said that they would not accept anyone who will be given a job.

“We are worried that some youths who will be given the jobs may be coming from other constituencies but we will not allow anything to go on,” said Mary Karegi, one of the hopefuls.

Efforts by the Nation to get comments from the NYS officers were futile.

The youths are supposed to be deployed to help in the construction of roads and water pans, among other projects.