NYS servicemen and women are to get their delayed pay starting Thursday. Director General Richard Ndubai said the arrears are part of a Sh60 million delayed payment for October 2017 to March.
Ndubai, who made the announcement about the start of the payments via Twitter, said the delay was brought about by circumstances beyond their control.According to him the arrears of Sh56 million, affecting 18,354, youths will also be paid via the Director General's Account.
"Banks are activating their accounts to facilitate payment. This delay was due to youths' change of phone numbers, wrong Huduma cards or inability to access banking," he said.
The DG said that with the high rates, each service person is entitled to Sh2,100, Sh600 of which will be saved. Last year, servicemen and women under the slum upgrading programme demonstrated across the country against the delayed payments.
Former Public Service, Youth and Gender CS Sicily Kariuki had assured MPs that the Sh926 million savings by the initial recruits were safe. She said Sh408 million was being run by 88 community saccos, while the rest was being held under a special account at Kenya Commercial Bank.
Besides the higher pay, President Uhuru Kenyatta gave instructions to all disciplined forces to accommodate a proportion of NYS servicemen during their annual recruitment.
He said the rule was to make sure there was recognition of the importance of absorbing the National Youth Service recruits in the disciplined forces