Sack Waiguru and audit youth agency, say ODM leaders

ODM Chairman John Mbadi (left) and Humanitarian Disaster Secretary Amos Olempati during a press conference over the NYS corruption claims in Nairobi, yesterday. [PHOTO: WILLIS AWANDU/STANDARD]

The Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) has insisted that President Uhuru Kenyatta must fire embattled Devolution Cabinet Secretary Anne Waiguru over the National Youth Service (NYS) corruption allegations.

The party reminded the President of his resolve to fight corruption, saying Waiguru must face the same fate that befell other Cabinet secretaries on the “list of shame”.

ODM Chairman John Mbadi said the President should gather enough courage to tell Waiguru to step aside until an investigation into the scandal is carried out.

“What is so special about this minister? If the Jubilee government is serious on its resolve to fight graft, Waiguru by now should have stepped aside,” said Mbadi.

Addressing the press yesterday evening, Mbadi asked the Auditor General Edward Ouko to move with speed to fully audit the NYS and Devolution ministry’s expenditure.

horrific history

Apart from the budget, the Opposition party wants the ethnic and gender composition of the NYS and all contracts entered into by the organisation made public.

“The curriculum being offered also should be audited. We have confirmed that majority of the youths being recruited are mainly from a particular community,” said Mbadi.

The Orange party said the NYS, that was started in the 1960s to provide services to the society, is “turning into a militia aimed at causing tension and anxiety in the country which is a precursor to violence”.

“We should view with trepidation and resist with the greatest determination, the formation of paramilitary groups. East and Central Africa has a horrific history with these kinds of groups,” said Mbadi.

ODM’s Political Affairs Secretary Opiyo Wandayi said he would, this afternoon, move a motion concerning the NYS saga and the subsequent reactions witnessed in the last two days.

According to Wandayi, the demonstration of youths donning NYS t-shirts on the streets of Nairobi,  is a manifestation that the billions of shillings allocated to the Devolution ministry is spent on empowering the “so-called NYS youths for reasons only known to Jubilee government”.

“I will move a motion tomorrow (today) on this NYS scandal. It is not CORD or ODM that first blew the whistle. It was Central Bank. Instead of being accountable to the issues being raised, they are hiring goons to dent the image of the party and its leader,” said Wandayi.

The two ODM officials also condemned the acts of political hooliganism by youths irrespective of the party they claim to support, including CORD.