Defence ministry needs Sh2.4bn for military recruitment – report

Ministry of Defence needs Sh2.42 billion for military recruitment in the 2023/24 financial year, a report by Departmental Committee on Defence, Intelligence and Foreign Relations shows.

The ministry has not hired in the last two years compared to other security agencies that have been having annual recruitment.

“The most critical funding area for the ministry is Sh2.428 billion for military recruitment,” the report on consideration of Budget Estimates for Financial Year 2023/24 said.

The ministry has been allocated Sh143.24 billion for the FY 2023/24 comprising Sh138.99 billion as recurrent spending and Sh4.25 billion as development use.

On February 10, Kenya Defence Forces cautioned the public against becoming victims of a fake recruitment notice circulating on social media.

The institution said no recruitment exercise was lined up to happen in February as was purported in the advert.

It emerged that the letter was used in a past recruitment exercise dated February 2021.

The last military recruitment process was in November 2021, when KDF advertised openings in six categories, including KDF constables. 

The report by Nelson Koech-led committee further named unfunded priority areas in the Ministry of Defence as modernisation programme (Sh1.7 billion), infrastructure (Sh4 billion) and Peace Support Operations (Sh1 billion).

In the 2023/24 allocation, personal emoluments take the lion’s share at Sh100.6 billion or 70.25 per cent of the total.

Operations and maintenance were allocated Sh31.1 billion or 21.74 of the whole.

The modernisation programme was given Sh4.5 billion (3.14 per cent).

The ministry has four Semi-Autonomous Government Agencies (SAGAs) and two departments.

SAGAs include Kenya Ordinance Factories Corporation, Kenya Space Agency, Kenya Shipyard Limited and National Defence University-Kenya.

Departments include National Air Support Department and National Security Telecommunication Services Department.