Profiles

Straight-talking administrator takes charge at scandal-hit NYS

matilda

Ms Matilda Sakwa, the acting NYS director general. FILE PHOTO | NMG

Tuesday’s appointment of Matilda Sakwa as acting director-general of the graft-tainted National Youth Service (NYS) seems to have come as surprise to many, going by the remarks on social media.

The task ahead of her is, however, not a surprise. The reputation of the 54-year-old State agency she was picked to head is soiled and it will be a Herculean task to clean it up after a series of recent financial scandals running into billions of shillings.

In just a span of three years, the rot at the NYS has claimed the scalp of two chief executives — Richard Ndubai and Nelson Githinji — and Ms Sakwa finds herself in a race to break the voodoo of a fast revolving door at the corner office.

Both Mr Ndubai and Mr Githinji were brought down by embarrassing financial scams that left the NYS an emblem of sleaze and mismanagement.

Ms Sakwa vows to soldier on with reforming the agency created in 1964 to train youth for important national matters.

“I believe it is a tough assignment but I am equal to the task. I will go and study the systems put in place and see whether structures work,” she said on Tuesday when she handed over to Sammy Ojwang who replaced her in acting capacity at Machakos where she was county commissioner.

“It is a tough job and judging from past history, people go there to loot, but I do not have that appetite,” she added.

Her tenure at the NYS kicked off on Wednesday afternoon when Public Service Secretary Margaret Kobia ushered her into office.

“My vision is to ensure that we restore the glory of NYS. Everyone knows NYS as a scandal-ridden organisation, which is very unfortunate” Ms Sakwa said.

A career administrator with a 29-year stint working in various government positions, Ms Sakwa will be banking on her experience to steer the NYS out of this mess.

READ: Sh5.6 billion NYS bills frozen as Sakwa takes over

Apart from Machakos, she was also county commissioner in Nandi and Elgeyo Marakwet. Under the old regime, she was district commissioner in Kangundo and Nairobi North.

As Ms Sakwa settles down to work, her straight-shooting style of leadership is likely to unsettle cartels that have over the years turned the NYS into a well fattened cash-cow.

She is not one to shy away from controversy after she put rogue business people in Machakos on notice for enlisting the services of strippers to lure male revellers.

“We have received information to the effect that strippers are here with us and have been sighted in a number of night clubs entertaining revellers. We want to caution bar owners that the government will not hesitate in revoking their trading licences once we establish that such a practice is being entertained in their businesses,” she warned last month.

She also had stand-offs with illegal sand harvesters in Machakos amid concern over the environmental degradation that led to drying rivers and streams and damage to key roads.

Two weeks before her promotion to the helm of NYS, Ms Sakwa impounded 12,400 sacks of suspected contraband sugar at a flower farm in Athi River.

From the ongoing sugar scam to the vicious sand harvesting business in Machakos County, Ms Sakwa’s administrative career has nearly seen it all.

Her first test at NYS is overseeing the appointment of a new procurement team at the institution.

Ms Sakwa will also play a major role in the verification of Sh5.6 billion in claims of pending bills since 2013.

Prof Kobia on Wednesday suspended the payment of these bills as part of efforts to clean up financial transactions of the NYS.

“There will be no payment of any pending bills. For any supplier to be paid for things supplied to the service, the documents must not be questionable” she said moments after she ushered Ms Sakwa into office.

A holder of Bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Religious Studies from University of Nairobi, the new NYS chief also holds a Diploma in Reforms in Government from Beijing.

She has also been trained at the Kenya School of Government, the agency that prepares senior officials on strategic leadership.

Time will tell if Ms Sakwa will succeed in restoring sanity at the NYS.