Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has said that the government is considering replacing National Police Service officers guarding key establishments with National Youth Service officers.
Gachagua stated on Thursday at the official opening of this year’s Nation-Huawei Job Fair at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi that more police officers are needed across the country to combat banditry and crime.
“Going forward, we want to have a discussion with government ministries, parastatals and other corporations to have a concrete plan on how to remove our officers from the security forces to go and deal with crime, so we can have NYS personnel man those offices at a fee,” said the DP.
Gachagua stated that NYS officers are “disciplined” enough to man the various premises that have long been monitored by the Kenya Police.
“It shouldn’t be free so that we can create a revolving fund to train more people. That is a conversation we want to have. We want our officers from the National Police Service to go and fight bandits and criminals, and the NYS personnel, because they are disciplined, they can do most of the work in terms of controlling people coming in and out of buildings,” he said.
According to the second-in-command, the plan “has been there but nobody has really followed it up properly so that it becomes an official government policy.”
“We want to have a conversation about payment because we don’t want them to offer a free service so that the money can be invested within the service to train more people,” he added.
Gachagua also revealed that he is a graduate of the National Youth Service.
“I am a graduate of NYS, we were there in 1985 at Gilgil for a basic training course and it is a wonderful service. I’m so happy that Huawei has agreed to tap from the skills available in NYS,” he said.
He said that at NYS, they were taught to be disciplined which is key in one’s professional career.
