The Nyandarua County Kazi Mtaani Implementation Committee has asked for a free-hand to take on board the growing number of youths seeking to be enlisted for work.
The youths, who had not applied online during the recruitment in November 2021, have continued to crowd their wards headquarters seeking opportunities to work on the National Hygiene Programme that commenced last Monday.
The committee meeting in Olkalou Thursday regretted that the recruitment process was hastened and did not allow time for vetting of the youths, with many having missed out on the recruitment.
Most of those who applied, the committee heard, had benefitted from the pilot programmes last year that only targeted the slums and Colonial villages in the county.
“In Kipipiri for instance, only Miharati Colonial village benefit from the previous programme with all the 632 applicants being residents of the village. The other three wards had no applicant and no one eligible for recruitment despite the huge numbers being recorded by the chiefs daily,” noted Kipipiri Deputy County Commissioner Edwin Chabari.
The situation was replicated in Wanjohi Sub county with no applicant being recorded from Geta division, while only 14 youths made applications online to serve in two wards in South Kinangop.
“About 123 youths, who previously served and applied online have been taken on board for North Kinangop with the area implementation committee seeking consent to deploy more who turned up, to fill the 800 slots given,” said South Kinangop DCC Ms. Faith Murage.
The youths told KNA in an interview on Monday that they were in high school when the programme was advertised and therefore had missed out. Most of them are high school leavers.
The committee also heard that most of the youths who made the online applications were not available to join the programme with many having secured employment elsewhere or joined institutions of higher learning.
“A number of those who turned up were relatives of the applicants, seeking to replace them for the three months’ exercise, citing dire need for the wages to relief them off the economic burden,” added Nyandarua North DCC Walter Ngaira, noting the high number of non-youths who turned up for the recruitment.
County Director for Housing Ezekiel Muiruri regretted that no instructions had been issued by the national secretariat to have the non-applicants taken on board, noting that only those who had earlier served have commenced the exercise.
“We will ensure that labour laws are followed to the letter to guarantee the safety of the workers, while they serve the public interest,” added County Commissioner Amos Mariba, while calling on the committee to ensure a free and fair recruitment.
On Thursday, 1, 328 workers reported on duty with only 4433 having been enrolled on the programme against a target of 7, 362.
