Agony as youth with tattoos turned away in NYS hiring

Dozens of youths paid dearly for their troubles after they were locked out of the ongoing National Youth Service (NYS) recruitment exercise for spotting tattoos on their bodies in Kiambu county.

While many of the would-be recruits met the minimum academic qualifications and also passed the physical fitness test, they were disqualified for spotting the tattoos.

Many of the disqualified youths questioned the decision to lock them out of the exercise simply because of the tattoos and urged the NYS to reconsider the move.

Led by Peterson Kamande, the youths said they declined to heed to their parents’ call not to have the tattoos inscribed on their bodies, a situation they have come to regret years after completion of.

While calling on experts to help them remove the tattoos to qualify for opportunities offered by the government, the youths regretted having been edged out because of failing to heed to their parents’ advice.

“I was disqualified because I have a tattoo which was engraved on my right arm when I was in high school. My parents had warned me about it but it has finally come to cost me. I’m now looking for an expert to have it removed because I am losing government opportunities,” said Kamande.

“Fashion and modernity have finally cost me an opportunity to join NYS which has been my dream for a long time. While I regret, the best thing I can do is to educate those younger than me to keep off the desire to have their bodies tattooed as once the body art has been engraved in one’s body, having it removed is not only costly but very painful. For me, I will focus elsewhere as I cannot withstand that pain,” John Kiragu, another youth who had turned up for the recruitment told journalists.

For Joseph Murage from Kamenu Ward, yesterday was his luckiest day after finally qualifying to join NYS, having been dismissed in the previous recruitments over an engraved tattoo on his shoulder.

“I incurred a lot of money to have the body art removed and the experience is one I would never want to have anymore. I am happy that my desire to join NYS has finally materialised and I will be joining the training with a hope that I will become a police officer one day,” Murage, who qualified to join the service, said.

Others were disqualified because of errors in their national identity cards, most of which read their area of birth being far away from the recruitment centre.

Contacted, NYS Director General James Tembur declined to comment on the matter, saying he would issue a comprehensive statement once the recruitment exercise is completed.

“Let us wait for the exercise to be completed then we will address all those issues,” he said.
Although the exercise was fair, according to Eliud Mwangi who had turned up for the recruitment, small mistakes saw so many of them go home regretting.

Although there was low turnout compared to the population of Thika, most of the youths said they had shown up to seize the opportunities offered after completion of the NYS training.

They stated that President William Ruto’s directive to have the National Police Service, Kenya Defence Forces, Kenya Wildlife Service and Kenya Forestry Service recruit 80 per cent of their pool from NYS saw them come out to grab the opportunities.

“We came out to join NYS for us to further qualify to join various disciplined forces as promised by the president. We are happy that NYS is now creating opportunities for the youths,” stated Mwangi.
Zachary Mwangi, a youth leader from Thika, Kiambu county called on parents to help their children in national identification registration to avert the errors that finally cost their children from qualifying for the NYS opportunities.

He further pleaded with parents to free their children from tattooing their bodies which saw most youths disqualified from joining the service.

“Thika had 107 slots but the turnout was not very pleasing. Most of those who turned up were disqualified for among other things having tattoos on their hands, chests among other parts of the body, discrepancies in their national identification cards and low academic grades,” noted Mwangi.

NYS recruitment exercise has been ongoing since yesterday in all the sub counties where each of the 1,450 wards have been awarded 33 slots based on the population as per the distribution schedule released by the government.