Public Service Cabinet Secretary Geoffrey Ruku has announced that the government will increase the number of youth recruited to the National Youth Service (NYS).
Speaking during a visit to NYS on Monday, April 28, Ruku announced that the government was planning to increase the recruits to 100,000 by 2027.
Currently, NYS recruits 20,000 youth to the service.
"Moving forward, we are going to increase that number from 20,000 and we want to push it by 2027-2028 to 100,000 young people getting enrolled in NYS so that we can do the paramilitary training, national service, as well as vocational training," he stated.
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He added that the government was also seeking to make NYS self-reliant, adding that the service needs to leverage agriculture in its plans.
For instance, he stated that NYS had adequate seedlings for avocado, which would supplement government programmes in agriculture.
"The visit was part of a broader field excursion to evaluate NYS internal programmes and their alignment with our vision of making the institution self-reliant and capable of absorbing more young people into national service," he stated.
“Once we have a strong legal framework, NYS products will be market-ready, fetch better value, and contribute financially to key government initiatives.”
On the other hand, he noted that more officers from NYS would be deployed to help with President William Ruto's cleaning programme for the Nairobi River.
