National Assembly puts NYS on spot over Ksh2.6B deficit and land issues
By Ndiritu Wanjiru, February 23, 2026The National Assembly’s Public Investments Committee on Social Services, Administration and Agriculture (PIC-SSAA), chaired by Navakholo Member of Parliament Emmanuel Wangwe, has put the National Youth Service (NYS) under intense scrutiny over audit queries pointing to financial instability, staffing shortages and contested land worth billions of shillings.
Taking it to their social media handle, on Monday, February 23, 2026, the parliament confirmed that a session with the NYS Director General James Kipsiele Tembur at Bunge Towers, who appeared before the Committee on Thursday, February 19, 2026, raised concerns raised by the Auditor-General for the 2023/2024 financial year.
At the centre of the session was an unexplained variance in trade and other payables. While the financial statements reflected a balance of Ksh2.59 billion, the ledger submitted for audit showed Ksh2.72 billion — leaving an unreconciled difference of Ksh130.8 million. The Committee noted that the reconciliation had not been addressed as required under Regulation 23(1) of the Public Finance Management (National Government) Regulations, 2015.
“What was the cause of the variance, and why has reconciliation not been done?” Wangwe asked.
Although NYS maintained that some balances had been cleared as first charges at the start of the financial year, the Committee members insisted that the audit concerns remained unresolved.
The committee further highlighted a negative working capital of Ksh1.3 billion and a widening deficit of Ksh2.6 billion — a sharp deterioration from the previous year. The Service is also burdened by Ksh15.8 billion in historical pending bills.
In his defence, Tembur attributed the financial strain to budget cuts and delayed exchequer releases, noting that the Service experienced a revenue shortfall of Ksh1.77 billion, representing 13 per cent of its approved budget. Recurrent expenditure also fell below projections, with an under-expenditure of Ksh2.03 billion.
The audit flagged encroachment of approximately 8,456 acres at the Hindi Field Unit and questioned ownership documentation for land valued at about KSh 20 billion.
Tembur further said the Service had developed eight business plans aimed at commercialising its land through large-scale farming and ranching to bridge funding gaps.
The chairperson of the committee directed NYS to submit its 2019 approved staff establishment, provide title documents for its Mombasa units, furnish a detailed report on questioned subcontractor payments, and fast-track action on asbestos removal.