Over 300 NYS officers demand pay from IEBC

More than 300 National Youth Service (NYS) officers based at the Tana Basin Road project who participated in the last polls are still demanding their dues from the elections agency.

The officers have now threatened to seek legal redress to recover unpaid dues amounting to Sh5 million from the Independent Electoral and Boundaries Commission (IEBC).

In a press statement issued in Hola yesterday, the NYS officers claimed that regular and Administration Police officers who provided security and logistics services on the polling day alongside them were paid their money.

The officers who requested not to be identified asked the Government to intervene and release their payment or else they will not offer similar services in future unless they are paid.

They claimed some Government official may have swindled their money.

"We demand our allowances even if the corrupt officers who received money on our behalf opted to go on retire," said one officer in Hola town.

Speaking to The Standard on phone at his office in Bura town, the new NYS Commanding Officer Philip Tanui Songok confirmed that the officers were yet to be paid.

He, however, said the matter was being solved by the service headquarters in Nairobi.

PERSONAL ACCOUNT

"It is true their allowances have been released by IEBC but it went to a personal account instead of being directed to an official account.

"This was made by mistake by the those who were in charge of the station that time.

"But I promise that their money is intact and will be released to them," the official told The Standard on phone.

Earlier, Galole IEBC Co-ordinator Hannington Kombe told The Standard that the security allowances were dispatched to respective commanders after last year's polls and that the poll agency could not be blamed over the issue.