Nairobi News

The National Youth Council leadership is demanding for the arrest and prosecution of individuals responsible for the Sh9 billion National Youth Service (NYS) scandal.

Led by Nairobi Branch chairman Mr Edward Githaiga, the leaders said that the state department is now becoming synonymous with loss of public money with other instances involve the Kazi Kwa Vijana saga, the first NYS scandal where over Sh796 million was lost and now the current one.

“This time stern action should be taken to those found culpable. Those responsible for the loss of the money must be jailed and not just left to step aside. We are tired and enough is enough,” said Mr Githaiga during a press conference on Saturday at Serena Hotel, Nairobi.

The chair said that billions continue to be lost at NYS, money that would go into the youth council which gets a paltry Sh37 million annually.

STEPPED ASIDE

On Thursday, Members of Parliament, during a meeting with Ministry of Public Service and Youth Affairs Cabinet Secretary Margaret Kobia, also threatened not to approve any budgetary allocations for NYS programmes until action is taken against those behind the saga, demanding that the list of the fictitious companies that were paid the Sh9 billion be made public.

Already, two public officers, who were in charge when NYS was hit by the Sh10.5 billion scandal, have stepped aside to pave way for investigations into the loss of billions of shillings of taxpayers’ money.

The two are Ms Lilian Mbogo-Omollo, the Principal Secretary in the Ministry of Public Service and Youth Affairs, and Mr Richard Ndubai, NYS Director General.

President Uhuru Kenyatta has also directed all those implicated to uphold the code of ethics and integrity and also step aside while also accepting the decision by the two officials to leave office for three months to pave way for the investigations by the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).