President William Ruto directed Ministry of Housing Cabinet Secretary Alice Wahome to construct additional hostels to house 3,000 more recruits ahead of the planned 20,000 additional recruits next year.
Speaking on Monday at the passing out parade of the Kenya National Youths Service in Gilgil, the Head of State revealed that the government is committed to having more young people benefit from NYS training.
“I have already instructed the Ministry of Housing to provide additional hostels to house 3,000 extra recruits at the National Youth Service,” the President stated.
He further directed the Ministry to develop housing for staff at the NYS as they do for all the other services.
To support the anticipated recruitment of the next batch of recruits who are expected to top 20,000, the government has come up with a new initiative dubbed Climate Works Mtaani Initiative that will absorb a section of the recruits.
“We are making sure as a government that more young people benefit from this training and the attendant vocational training that comes with it," he explained.
The President also announced that the recruits will play a pivotal role in greening the country and combating the effects of climate change.
“I also want to announce that National Youth Service will be supervising the cohort of young people. We will be recruiting shortly under our Climate Works Mtaani Initiative, which will bring more young people into the space of greening Kenya,” he added.
The NYS aims at planting one billion trees by 2032 which will be realized by deployment of the Climate Works Mtaani Initiative. Overall, the state plans to plant one billion trees.
In preparation for the intake, the President further directed the recruitment of 200 additional cadet officers and 500 private officers to support in the exemplary work that is going on at the NYS.
The additional hostels will have the capacity to house 3,000 extra recruits together with requisite accommodation facilities.
About 15,000 graduates graduated from the service. The President encouraged the graduating class of to stay the course and pursue the path of success by upholding the values that brought them this far.
