• Sakwa was rushed to hospital after she suddenly fell ill at her office in what was suspected to be food poisoning.
• She says she will not be intimidated in her commitment to transform NYS, completely ridding it of graft.
National Youth Service director general Matilda Sakwa, a tough-minded reformer, was rushed to hospital on Tuesday moments after she drank a cup of tea.
It was not immediately known if the contents of the tea caused her illness but those close to Sakwa suspect it might have been an attempt on her life.
"We suspect that someone might have tried to poison her," an NYS source said.
Sakwa has been undertaking decentralisation and other major reforms at the institution that previously has been hit by major scandals.
On Thursday Waswa confirmed to the Star that she was rushed to hospital after drinking tea but did not disclose the diagnosis.
Sakwa says that some people are unhappy with the reforms she is undertaking at the institution.
“I know corruption fights back and it takes time to clean the image of NYS, and therefore you will always get naysayers who do not mean well for the institution,” Sakwa said.
NYS was hit by two major scandals that cost the country billions of shillings.
The NYS is a paramilitary training institution that has been at the forefront of President Uhuru Kenyatta's plan to combat high youth unemployment.
Enrolment is voluntary and youths receive a stipend while receiving technical training and working on government projects.
With a budget soaring to Sh250 billion a year at one point, the NYS has been plagued by Kenya's endemic corruption. The first scandal broke in 2015 after the theft of Sh7 billion through inflated pricing and fictitious payments.
The latest scandal — brought to light by suppliers who had not been paid — appears to show how families and friends of powerful politicians ended up receiving millions of shillings in questionable payments.
Former PS Lilian Omollo and former NYS director Richard Ndubai are among those on trial for the loss of Sh465 million, though the total loss was initially placed at Sh9 billion in the second scandal that hit the service last year.
On Thursday Sakwa said although it has been tough trying to reform the institution, she is determined to change the way things are done and eliminate corruption.
“Since I came to NYS, we looked at the operations of the National Youth Service in terms of allocation of money, especially budget food and rations.
"We saw that the best thing is to decentralise all the money to the units. I have 22 units across the board, they get their budgets from us centrally,” she told the Star in an interview in her office, a day after she was rushed to a city hospital over what was initially suspected to be food poisoning.
She revealed that decentralisation of funds to the institution’s units across the country is one of the reforms that have already been achieved since she took over a year ago.
Sakwa explained the allocations of funds to the units depending on the population in each unit.
“We look at the numbers of servicemen and women per unit and allocate the money depending on the population per unit. For instance, NYS Gilgil which has 14,000 servicemen and women, gets more money of about Sh400 million for food and rations,” she said.
She added that smaller units like Bura, Tana River, Lambwe, and Imbalambala, some of which have as few as 2,000 servicemen and women, receive smaller budgets of about Sh4 million.
NYS has 56,000 servicemen and women countrywide and 10,000 newly recruited cadets who are undergoing training in Gilgil.
Sakwa said decentralisation of funds is ideal since commanding officers are able to ascertain what kind of foods they want to issue, what rations they need and therefore pay according to what they have ordered.
“This is unlike the past when food was bought and delivered from Nairobi and taken to the units. Somebody could be paid and yet there is no food delivered to the units. This was a recipe for corruption.”
The director-general warned NYS staff and managers against engaging in corrupt dealings and said if anyone is found culpable they will "carry their own cross."
“It is important for us to understand that if we decentralise these monies, we at the headquarters do not want to go and look for it later. All those accountable must ensure the money is paid for what is intended," Sakwa said.
In terms of who to supplies the NYS units with food and rations, the director-general said they floated tenders across the board and clustered the units into regions.
The regions include Nyanza, Western, Coast, Eastern, Rift Valley and Nairobi.
“I have also given directions that the same person should not be given tenders to supply a particular food item all the time, because we have several people in the same category. Hence, each person must get an opportunity to supply an item so that you do not get the same person supplying meat, for instance, from January 31to December," she said.