New National Youth Service Director-General Richard Ethan Ndubai sworn-in

President Uhuru Kenyatta (left) with the new NYS Director General Richard Ethan Ndubai at State House, Mombasa after the swearing in ceremony.

Mombasa, Kenya – Former Permanent Secretary Richard Ethan Ndubai has been sworn-in as the new Director-General of the National Youth Service (NYS).

Speaking today when he witnessed the swearing-in ceremony of the NYS Director General at State House, Mombasa, President Uhuru Kenyatta ordered the resumption of the Service’s youth empowerment programme.

He said the objective of empowering the country’s young people to enable them participate actively in nation building that was main aim of the NYS at independence, still remains the core mandate of the Service.

“My administration is keen to see this service re-introduce the core values it had and to once again re-engage young people in our country to ensure they are part and parcel of nation building,” said the president.

“So today as we swear you in, I want to clearly state my own personal commitment to restart the empowerment programme within the next two months,” the President told the new NYS Director General.

The Head of State said the Government is also focused on ensuring that through the skills acquired at the NYS, the young people will play a role in ensuring peace and stability in Kenya.

He noted, with regret that even after NYS was re-launched with passion and a lot of expectation from young people, the Service had fallen short of what was required of it.

The swearing-in ceremony was conducted by the Chief of Staff and Head of Public Service Joseph Kinyua.

Mr. Ndubia holds a Masters Degree in Public Administration from Havard University and a Bachelor of Commerce - accounting option - from the University of Nairobi. He is due to graduate with a PHD in Performance Contracting, Measurement and Public Service Delivery from the same university. He has undertaken numerous training courses and programmes including Certification in Corruption Prevention from the Marcus Evans Institute in Johannesburg, South Africa.

The new Director-General is also a member of various professional bodies including Kenya Association for Public Administration and Management as well as Kenya Institute of Management.

He was selected after a thorough audit of the capacity gaps at the National Youth Service and vetted through strict and elaborate criteria that found him to possess the qualities and core competences required to steer the Service forward. Mr. Ndubai has had a successful public service career spanning over 30 years in various high performance management fields where his delivery record saw him advance to the highest echelons of public service. This track record earned him three state commendations; Chief of the Burning Spear (CBS); Moran of the Order of the Burning Spear (MBS); and Order of the Grand Warrior (OGW).