Streamline NYS, Uhuru instructs new Youth PS

(PSCU) — President Uhuru Kenyatta today gave firm instructions to the newly appointed Principal Secretary for Youth and Gender Affairs Dr. Francis Otieno Owino to ensure that the National Youth Service (NYS) is streamlined.

The President said the NYS was never meant to be a conduit for enriching a few individuals but an initiative to empower and change the lives of millions of young Kenyans.

The Head of State directed the new PS to resolve all the financial and administrative bottlenecks at NYS that prevent it from fulfilling its mandate.

President Kenyatta spoke at State House Nairobi where he witnessed the swearing-in of both Dr Owino and Mrs. Esther Koimett who takes over as the new PS for Transport.

Earlier President Kenyatta chaired a Cabinet meeting which approved the restructuring of the NYS to deal with serious managerial and operational challenges that have faced the organization in the recent past.

Key among the proposed changes is the establishment of an oversight board which will effectively make the NYS a body corporate with a Director General as the Chief Executive Officer.

The Cabinet also approved a clean-up of the organization’s Supply chain management function and reforms in its budgetary and internal audit sections.

During the swearing-in ceremony also attended by Deputy President William Ruto, the Head of State reminded the newly appointed PS’s that the oath of office and accountability pledge that they had taken and sworn was a personal commitment to integrity.

“We expect the highest degree of integrity and loyalty to the people,” President Kenyatta told the two PS’s.

President Kenyatta added that, as the principal accounting officers in their respective dockets, the PS’s hold the final responsibility of all activities and actions in their respective departments.

The President said every government officer must take full responsibility of their mandate adding that time was long gone when some top officers could abdicate their duties. 

The two PSs underwent vetting and approval by Parliament following their nomination by President Kenyatta in a recent reshuffle.

Mrs Koimett, an investment banker, worked as the Director General for public investments and portfolio management at the National Treasury before her new appointment.

The Informer