President William Ruto has directed the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to give priority to National Youth Service (NYS) graduates in the recruitment of new rangers.
Speaking on Friday, April 12 during the launch of the Human-Wildlife Conflict Mitigation and Compensation Scheme in Rumuruti Laikipia County, the President said KWS will be recruiting 1500 new rangers from Monday next week.
President Ruto pointed out that NYS graduates should be given priority in recruitment as he had announced in December 2023.
“In that recruitment plan, I have directed that we must ensure that the majority of those given priority are our young people who have graduated from NYS. We want those young people from NYS to get an opportunity to serve, as I instructed in matters of the security sector,” Ruto stated.
The Head Of State also directed KWS to give affirmative action to counties facing human-wildlife conflicts in the recruitment of new rangers.
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“My directive is that those counties facing challenges with wildlife reserves such as Laikipia should be given affirmative action to have more young people than other counties. This is because they understand wildlife issues and the pains caused by wildlife damaging citizens' property,” Ruto ordered.
This comes weeks after Public Service CS Moses Kuria protested KWS’ recruitment drive saying it was against the President’s directive.
Speaking on March 19, Kuria said he would speak with President Ruto to ensure NYS graduates are given 80 percent of the slots in the recruitment.
“The president said that 80 percent of KWS recruits should come from NYS, then someone placed an advertisement in the newspaper today saying NYS is an added advantage. That is foolishness and it is defying the president's order. I will talk to the president and inform him to fulfill his promise that he made to Kenyans that 80 percent of KDF officers, National Police Service officers, and KWS officers should come from NYS,” said Kuria.
On December 8, 2023 during the NYS pass-out parade in Gilgil, Ruto announced that the National Security Council (NSC) had approved 80 percent of all recruitments in security agencies to be from NYS graduates.
“We have decided as the National Security Council of the Republic of Kenya that out of all recruitments to the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), National Police Service (NPS, Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), 80 percent will be from NYS,” Ruto said.
