National Youth Service (NYS) officers who were deployed to build a security wall along Kenya’s border with Somali are demanding Sh350 million in allowances. The more than 500 servicemen from Tana River said the NYS headquarters had been taking them in circles since the project was stopped.
The officials had been picked from various stations to build the wall that was expected to stop Al Shabaab militiamen from crossing into Kenya.
They claimed they had been promised hefty allowances, but the money was not paid even after they had worked for 18 months. Speaking in Bura town yesterday, the officers, who requested anonymity for fear of victimisation, wondered why it took too long for them to be paid, yet they risked their lives to construct the wall. The officers, who have since been returned to their former stations, are afraid that the money might have been misappropriated.
“We fear that our money may have been released, but pocketed by some individuals. That’s why we want the President to intervene. We cannot talk much because we are members of a disciplined force. That’s why we have been suffering in silence,” they said in a statement.
Tana Delta NYS commander Lawrence Lerapo declined to comment on the matter yesterday.
Source: Standard
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