Deputy President Rigathi Gachagua has said the government is considering replacing National Police Service officers guarding key establishments with officials from the National Youth Service.
Speaking on Thursday during the official opening of this year’s Nation-Huawei Job Fair at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre in Nairobi, Gachagua said NYS will be paid for their services.
Gachagua said police officers need to be deployed across the country to fight banditry and crime.
"Going forward, we want to have a discussion with government ministries, parastatals and other corporations to have a concrete plan on how to remove our officers from the security forces to go and deal with crime, so we can have NYS personnel man those offices at a fee," he said.
Gachagua said NYS officers are disciplined enough to man the various premises which have for long been under the watch of the Kenya Police.
“It shouldn’t be free so that we can create a revolving fund to train more people. That is a conversation we want to have,” he said.
“We want our officers from the NPS to go and fight bandits and criminals, and the NYS personnel, because they are disciplined, they can do most of the work in terms of controlling people coming in and out of buildings.”
He said the plan has been there but nobody has followed it up properly so that it becomes an official government policy.
“We want to have a conversation about payment because we don’t want them to offer a free service so that the money can be invested within the service to train more people,” he said.
In 2015, NYS personnel began guarding Kenya Revenue Authority offices and Huduma Centres as part of a plan by the government to use the personnel in guarding major installations that had been under private guards.
The move was to ensure that the trainees' talents do not go to waste after leaving the service.
NYS personnel were tasked with such services as ticketing and crowd control at public events, and security for private corporations and selected government agencies such as the Kenya Ferry Service, Kenya Ports Authority and airports.
