President William Ruto has directed the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) to prioritize recruitment of new rangers from the National Youth Service (NYS).
Speaking on Friday in Laikipia County, the Head of State called for more attention to be given to NYS in the recruiting of 1,500 new game rangers which is slated to start from Monday next week.
“I have directed that we must ensure that the majority of those given priority are our young people who have graduated from NYS. We want those young people from NYS to get an opportunity to serve, as I instructed in matters of the security sector,” Ruto stated.
The President also ordered KWS to give affirmative action to counties facing human-wildlife conflicts in terms of recruiting new rangers to serve in the wildlife service.
“My directive is that those counties facing challenges with wildlife reserves such as Laikipia should be given affirmative action to have more young people than other counties. This is because they understand wildlife issues and the pains caused by wildlife damaging citizens’ property,” Ruto ordered.
In December 2013, President Ruto announced that the National Security Council (NSC) had approved 80 percent of all recruitments in security agencies to be from NYS graduates.
“We have decided as the National Security Council of the Republic of Kenya that out of all recruitments to the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF), National Police Service (NPS, Kenya Forest Service (KFS), and Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS), 80 percent will be from NYS,” he said then.
However, in March KWS announced opportunities for Kenyans who have a minimum mean grade of “D” (Plain) in the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examination.
The move angered Public Service CS Moses Kuria who said KWS was defying Ruto’s order that directed 80 percent of recruitments of government agencies to come from NYS.
“The president said that 80 percent of KWS recruits should come from NYS, then someone placed an advertisement in the newspaper today saying NYS is an added advantage. That is foolishness and it is defying the president’s order.
“I will talk to the president and inform him to fulfill his promise that he made to Kenyans that 80 percent of KDF officers, National Police Service officers, and KWS officers should come from NYS,” said Kuria.
