NYS ready to transform KEMSA

National Youth Service Director-General Matilda Sakwa [Elvis Ogina, Standard]

The National Youth Service is ready to transform Kenya Medical Supplies Agency (Kemsa) to the required standards, Director-General Matilda Sakwa has said.

Sakwa said she was sure NYS going to Kemsa will give it great change and transformation.

“We will transfer knowledge on effective and strong structures to restructure it within 30 days,” Sakwa said.

She spoke during the NYS inter-regional competitions bringing together servicemen and women from 22 NYS units in five regions.

Sakwa said the government’s decision to involve NYS in restructuring Kemsa didn’t mean that it was taking over from the medical supplies agency.

“NYS is supporting KEMSA just the same way we have been supporting other departments in the government. NYS basically is there to support any department that needs vital support, and when we were approached and told to go support Kemsa, it isn’t something that was a surprise,” Sakwa said.

 “This is because we have continuously supported for example Ministry of Lands, Immigration, even the police themselves in crowd controls, during national exams. We have continuously supported police and KDF. NYS was on railway supporting Kenya Railways to ensure there was a railway line. So, supporting Kemsa doesn’t mean NYS is taking over Kemsa. I don’t know where that notion is coming from, that NYS has taken over Kemsa. Kemsa still remains Kemsa, NYS is there to support some of the talents that they wanted in ensuring that capacity was built within Kemsa to ensure that they get the best from whatever programs and projects they are involved in,” she added. 

She said NYS was known for discipline and that’s what attracted the government to ensure that they support the medical supplier.

“I have seen many people, naysayers questioning why NYS was approached to support Kemsa since at one point the institution was known to have some corruption cases. NYS isn’t corrupt, it is individuals who are corrupt,” Sakwa said.

Sakwa added, “...and when we are saying that NYS is corrupt and therefore can’t be part and parcel of restructuring Kemsa, I think you are very wrong because people we are taking to Kemsa are the young men and women, servicemen and women and at no time have we seen NYS stealing from itself. The people stealing from NYS are individuals within the government so to say, and you can’t blame the service for the wrongs.”

She said an individual isn’t an organisation and once a corrupt individual has been removed, the organisation remains. Sakwa said it was unfair for NYS to be tainted corrupt all the time stating she had been at the helm of the service for the last three years but hadn’t had any corruption case.

“It’s because we are working together, putting structures and the structures in NYS were not put by the service itself. So, it’s good to always understand that while blaming an institution, you are also killing the morale of the staff, servicemen and women. This is where young men and women come to nurture,” Sakwa said.

Sakwa said it was wrong to tag an institution as corrupt simply because it had a corruption history.

“We are excited that we are part and parcel of the team identified to be part of restructuring Kemsa, we are going to do it. Our background is discipline and that discipline we are going to portray as we do whatever the government wants us to do in Kemsa,” she explained. 

She said some of the assignments NYS will be charged with at the medical agency included logistics, drivers, warehousing, security and secretariat.

Sakwa said Kemsa hadn’t been disbanded, “Senior management is there and will give guidance on what NYS will do.”