Hundreds of Kenyans who wish to join Kenya Defense Forces will know revised dates for the exercise soon, Deputy Director Public Communication Brigadier Bogita Ongeri has said.
In a statement on Friday, Ongeri said the KDF management agreed to postpone the exercise which was scheduled for October 28th to 30th this month.
Over 3,000 servicemen and women are expected to join an already existing 24,000 soldiers. Kenya Army constitutes most of the force, closely followed by Kenya Air Force.
"Following a meeting between the Cabinet Secretary for Defence and the Departmental Committee on Defence and Foreign Relations held yesterday, 17th October 2019, the Ministry has decided to postpone the upcoming KDF National Recruitment Drive which was to be held between 28th and 30th October 2019," read the statement.
"The decision was reached after taking into account the valuable sentiments by members of the committee. The Ministry of Defense shall communicate a new schedule of recruitment exercise and provide further guidelines as will be necessary soon."
This year, KDF had jointly advertised for positions of General Duty Recruits, General Service Officers (GSO) Cadets and Specialists who normally take the shortest training period.
On Thursday, National Assembly Defense committee chair Katoo Ole Metito said both parties agreed to postpone the exercise to allow recruitment to take place at Sub County level.
Unlike in the past, KDF wanted to recruit at the county level, a move that was opposed by MPs. Parliament allocated Sh121 billion for Ministry of Defense in 2019/20.
“We resolved as a committee that the ministry reverts to sub-counties as recruitment centres. The ministry has since informed the committee that the advertisement has been cancelled and new dates for recruitment will be announced,” said Ole Metito.
Importantly, this will be the very last recruitment exercise under Chief of Defense Forces General Samson Mwathethe, who is expected to retire in May 2020.