NYS: Actualising the plan for youth empowerment

By  Geoffrey Ruku

Cabinet Secretary

Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programmes

On August 24, 2021, during a presidential campaign rally, then Deputy President William Ruto declared: “I am a man on a mission. I have no space to retreat, nor the luxury to surrender.”

He recently repeated the words in his Mashujaa Day address in Eldoret. True to his word, President Ruto has pursued his promises to Kenyans.

Months before his election in 2022, Dr Ruto signed the Youth Charter, outlining his government’s youth agenda.

Key priorities included job creation, talent and skills development, sports promotion and policies to improve young people’s lives.

At Nyayo Stadium, he pledged to expand and equip “technical training institutions to arm the youth with relevant skills that will enable them to engage in skilled businesses and boost their earnings”. He added: “Provision of hands-on, market-ready skills is a big part of solving the youth unemployment question.” This, he said, required deliberate action. Since his election, President Ruto has positioned the National Youth Service (NYS) as a key vehicle for delivering on his youth agenda and driving Kenya’s economic transformation. Traditionally, the NYS has focused on two pillars: paramilitary training and national service.

Under his administration, however, technical and vocational training, including job placements, has become the programme’s third pillar.

Growing demand for NYS placements prompted the President in 2025 to launch a three-year expansion plan targeting 100,000 recruits annually by 2028.

Vocational training

At a recent pass-out parade, where I represented the President, I reiterated my ministry’s plan to transform NYS training centres into modern centres of excellence, working with technical and vocational education and training (TVET) institutions nationwide.

The Sh15 billion plan will expand access to vocational training from next year, with projects worth Sh6.4 billion already underway in NYS camps. The projects include additional classrooms, workshops, barracks, kitchens and administrative facilities to accommodate 50,000 young people and staff. We are on course to meet the President’s target of 100,000 recruits annually by 2028.

Closer collaboration between the NYS and TVET institutions will strengthen the foundations for employment, innovation and self-reliance. Since 2024, 12,760 NYS alumni have secured formal employment locally.

Another priority is the international labour mobility programme, popularly known as Kazi MajuU, which connects suitably skilled Kenyans with overseas employment.

The President views the initiative as an opportunity to ease domestic unemployment by opening up jobs abroad. The government has helped more than 600,000 young people secure overseas employment, including 5,720 NYS graduates working in the United Kingdom, Israel, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Australia.

The NYS also exposes recruits to income-generating enterprises alongside vocational training in their chosen trades. These include water bottling, bakery production and certified potato seed production, with plans to introduce leather manufacturing, climate-smart agriculture, affordable construction materials and security services.

The experience equips young people for employment at home and abroad, as well as self-employment.

My ministry remains committed to expanding and equipping the NYS to ensure the President’s promises to Kenya’s youth are fulfilled.

Follow our WhatsApp channel for breaking news updates and more stories like this.

The writer is the Cabinet Secretary for Public Service, Human Capital Development and Special Programmes.