The National Intelligence Service (NIS), in a study believed to have been shared with State House and confidentially seen by the Sunday Nation, questions different aspects of the service, which could haunt the country in future.
The NIS is questioning the big number of graduates and potential recruits. Some 10,000 youths recently graduated from the Gilgil-based NYS and the government has also said there are plans to recruit 20,870 every year.
The Service is also questioning the compensation scheme for the graduates, given that the government does not have a clear plan for their remuneration.
Most of the graduates are vulnerable and could easily become home-grown terrorists.
“Unless they are fully engaged, they may be a security menace given their big number, the nature of training and lack of proper plans for remuneration,” the study by NIS states.
The warning comes at a time the country is facing a serious risk of terrorism from the Somalia-based Al-Shabaab.
Besides Al-Shabaab, there are also other outlawed groups terrorising the country such as Gaza Boys, Mungiki and others that would be more than willing to recruit the disillusioned graduates given their nature of training.
The study, the most critical of the NYS reforms yet, is believed to have started during the reign of former NIS Director-General Michael Gichangi.
It concludes that the envisaged programme will reinforce the public’s perception of militarisation of various public sectors by the government.
President Uhuru Kenyatta last month appointed Major-General Philip Kameru to replace Major-General Gichangi whose resignation was announced on August 15.
This comes as Devolution and Planning Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru intensifies countrywide deployment of the NYS graduates to undertake short-term jobs at the county and national government levels.
Even then, the number that is engaged is a very small one, compared to the total number of the graduates.
NOT THE ONLY COMPONENT
Ms Waiguru has, however, dismissed the argument that the paramilitary training that the NYS recruits receive would make them a threat to national security.
“Paramilitary training is not the only component of NYS training. There is national service and vocational training. NYS has proved a success in yielding the most disciplined uniformed service in the country. The youth will be ambassadors of social transformation and re-socialisation. This teaches them how to be patriotic citizens to their country,” Ms Waiguru told the Sunday Nation in an interview.
The Devolution Secretary added that there were a number of opportunities for the graduates such as slum civil works which have already started in Kibera’s informal settlements, and an integrated dam construction unit.
The graduates, Ms Waiguru added, will also be involved in integrated road construction, vector control, huduma kitchens, traffic control, public security and agriculture units.
She said that the service had a total budget of Sh18 billion for the 2014/2015 financial year.
However, without breaking the budget down to key programmatic areas, it is difficult to tell how much the government intends to use on training, remuneration and other plans.
The vocational training, according to Ms Waiguru, involves the graduates taking professional studies in their fields of interest.
“In the schools, the youth will be trained in specialised skills, and focus will be on skill sets that are in greatest demand from sectors in both Kenya and the East African region. You will notice that in addition to the traditional schools of engineering, hospitality and others, NYS now has a new contingent of schools which have been created to respond to rising demand for particular skill sets in the marketplace, such as the school of public duty and the school of oil and gas to cater for new sectors,” the Cabinet Secretary said.
President Kenyatta presided over the relaunch of NYS, dubbed a transformation programme, on September 10 in Gilgil when he also presided over the passing-out of over 10,000 graduates.
Ms Waiguru also said the government will pay the graduates for every day they are out undertaking public service duties and serving their country.
This implies that they will only be paid if they work, an issue that has also been raised by NIS.
“But we prefer to see it more as a token of appreciation rather than payment since the whole idea behind national service is for them to give back to Kenyans who are shouldering the cost of their free training, which, in most cases, takes two to three years to complete,” she said.
But even as Ms Waiguru hailed the envisaged reforms, some security experts are of the view that the programme needs to be handled with a lot of care.
The managing director of Vickers Security, retired Major Bashir Abdullaih, said that while the idea of revamping the NYS looks pretty good from, the government may not have considered the long term plan of the restructuring process.
“The plan might be seen as part of militarisation of institutions, the latest being NYS,” he said.
This is in reference to the recent appointment of retired Major-General Gordon Kihalangwa to head the immigration docket, and the proposed establishment of a Nairobi Metropolitan Command to perform ordinarily police duties within the city.
This is in addition to the existing Western and Eastern Commands.
Major Abdullaih also faulted the programme saying that the government’s plan to give graduates priority might lock out an entire segment of Kenya’s population from the disciplined service.
While the government is also proposing a Bill where the military and police will be required to absorb NYS graduates, which could also lock out other Kenyans from the military and police, there is also the question whether the government has the capacity to absorb all the NYS graduates.
There is also the question of how many of these graduates meet the basic qualifications of joining the disciplined services.
COMPLICATE SECURITY SITUATION
If they cannot be all absorbed, Major Abdullaih said, it lends credence to the fear that the same graduates, who are being trained to assist in maintaining law and order, could become a security menace in the country.
“You will be saddled with a population that has been trained almost like GSU, with no proper control, and this might complicate the security situation at local levels. There must be a clear plan about what the government wants to do with these recruits,” he added.
Mr George Musamali, a security and anti-terror expert, also shares Major Abdullaih’s view that while the idea of transforming the NYS is noble, the government lacks a proper long-term plan for the graduates.
“My worry is whether it will be sustainable. Previously, we had a pre-university programme which failed because we were militarising the students,” Mr Musamali said.
“We need to eliminate this notion that they will be volunteers. No one can be a volunteer forever,” he added.
He also questioned the number of graduates which he warned could at some point overwhelm the government.
“Unless the government has a plan that it is not telling us, we will have many youths roaming our streets with military skills and who are not accountable to anyone,” said Mr Musamali.
But Ms Waiguru said the government was confident all the graduates will be absorbed into other professional sectors.
The government’s projection is that the economy will continue to grow at an average rate of five per cent every year for the foreseeable future, meaning there is a potential for job opportunities, she said.
She said that the government was also addressing the issue of the cost of doing business in Kenya to encourage more investment and growth of industries by bringing down the cost of energy, enhancing Internet connectivity, expanding transport infrastructure as well as easing regulatory bottlenecks, among other measures.
“What this means is that the private sector will expand; with such expansion comes higher demand for human resources. Government is extremely keen on facilitating the growth of the private sector so that they, in turn, can create more jobs for our youth,” she said.
Ms Waiguru added that the new NYS curriculum has been designed to enable the graduates focus on self-employment under the Enterprise and Youth Economy pillar instead of being dependent on government.
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