Close to 8000 National Youth Service (NYS) trainees have reportedly been sent away from their training camps.
The recruits were sent home on Thursday after their pass-out ceremony was delayed for more than five months due to lack of funds.
According to a report by the Standard, the trainees had been in the training colleges for almost 11 months even after completing their six-month course, because the department lacked funds to organize a graduation ceremony.
The report claims that NYS had exhausted money to buy uniforms and other gears required for the ceremony due to rampant looting that had rocked the department.
"The passing-out ceremony has been delayed. This group has overstayed and we should be training another group now but that is not possible. We anticipate that the graduation will delay for a little longer," a senior official was quoted by the newspaper.
A further look into the camps revealed that the trainees had been going through hard times, after some food supplies from China were suspended following massive corruption where more than Sh791 Million was lost.
"The training institute is completely rotten and Kenyans should be told the truth. Those young boys and girls are suffering in the camps and surviving under harsh conditions," the report revealed.
NYS which falls under the Devolution Ministry was rocked by a graft storm that exposed how millions were looted from its accounts especially through suspicious dealings in procurement.
This led to the suspension of its former Director Nelson Githinji and other top officials, who have since been arraigned in court, while others like former Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru are still being investigated.
