Topic > The National Youth Service (NYS) corruption scandal

The National Youth Service (NYS) was established in 1964 by the national government of Kenya to provide young Kenyans with essential skills and training on both personal and national issues (NYS , 2018 ). Until the late 1980s, all students were required to enroll in New York State before enrolling in universities for further study; however, this requirement was dropped after the period mentioned above and membership in New York State became voluntary (NYS, 2018). Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on the topic "Why violent video games should not be banned"? Get an Original Essay Following the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as President of the Republic of Kenya in 2013 and in support of his campaign pledge to reduce levels of youth alcohol unemployment, New York State was renamed in 2013 and subsequently launched in 2014 by his government. The goal of the reinvigorated New York State was to cast a wider net to all communities, so as to equip young people with basic paramilitary skills and give them the opportunity to join the Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) or an avenue to promote their education in tertiary institutions. (NYS, 2018) Despite the well-intentioned goals of New York State's rebirth; the institution has recently come to the national spotlight for the wrong reasons on two different occasions and attributable to two different scandals, albeit based on the same script. This article describes the two scandals by evaluating the laws, policies and procedures that were not followed. Notably, the first scandal took place in 2015 and is commonly nicknamed “NYS 1” by the media and public; this has since been dwarfed by an even bigger scandal in 2018 dubbed "NYS 2". The extent of the financial loss resulting from financial irregularities at NYS 1 varies depending on the official questioned or what the newspaper reports. However, most sources, including the prosecution, seem to converge on a figure of KES 791,000,000 (read seven hundred and nine million Kenyan shillings). Sadly, three years later, and following the acquittal of New York State 1 suspects on March 9, 2018; the details of what happened in New York State still remain shrouded in mystery and opacity. While there is no doubt that hundreds of millions were stolen from New York State, the connection between the loss of money and the perpetrators remained illusory. For example, the prime suspect, former Permanent Secretary of the State of New York, Mrs. Anne Waiguru, believed to be the main informant of the scam. The description of the scandal below is based on the version given by the prosecution and limited by the fact that they were unable to obtain a conviction. The architecture of the New York scandal involved collusion between insiders and suppliers by which funds were transferred to pay people for non-existing supplies or inflated prices. For example, it is claimed that New York State procured 18 male and female condom dispensers at a cost of Ksh 450,000, which is Ksh 25,000 each, whereas on average such dispensers are expected to cost Ksh 8,900, thus inflated by 180%. A table of other similar cases is highlighted below; In addition to the above list, New York State purchased a Yamaha brand piano at a cost of Ksh 235,900, its usefulness could not be established. In addition to inflating the cost of purchases, the fraud was also perpetuated by adding zeros to all transactions, as cited below; "Police investigations have established that payment entries through the government's IFMIS system..