Five arrested over forgery at KDF hiring

Five young people were arrested after they presented forged national identification cards to Kenya Defence Forces recruiters in Bomet County yesterday.

Recruiting officer Lieutenant-Colonel Erick Oloo said his team handed the youth to detectives.

Women in the region were locked out of the recruitment since many were already serving in the military compared with other regions, he said.

“The recruitment is based on population from each region in the military,” he said. “Bomet has a bigger number of women in the military and the region may be lucky to have some of its women getting slots in the next recruitment.”

He said more than 1,800 young people from Bomet Central and Bomet East constituencies turned up for the recruitment, but most of them were turned away because they did not meet the qualifications.

LOW TURNOUT

Lt-Col Oloo said seven recruits could come from the two constituencies. Of these, the Navy and the Air Force will get one recruit each while the rest will join the Kenya Army.

Residents said the hiring was “free and fair” but were disappointed that the two constituencies were allocated few slots.

In Nandi, a low turnout marked the recruitment. Residents attributed it to the few slots up for grabs, coupled with the fear of joining the disciplined forces at a time the Kenyan military is battling Al-Shabaab militants.

Recruiters at the Koitalel Samoei University College, led by Lt-Col Gift Mwandago, said no incident of corruption or forgery was reported.

Only seven people were recruited in a session that attracted less than 500 hopefuls. Lt-Col Mwandago said each of the 17 centres in the North Rift would take seven recruits.

In Kisumu, confusion over divisional boundaries could affect some candidates’ chances.

EQUITY IN SELECTION

Recruiters yesterday said they did not know how to handle a case where candidates from two sub-counties claimed to belong to the same division.

Though they had picked recruits from Winam Division in Kisumu East on Monday, the forces yesterday encountered recruits in Kisumu West who claimed to come from the same division. The military picks candidates based on their divisions to ensure equity in the selection.

“We will pick candidates from this division, but the decision as to whether we can have two sets of recruits from the same division will be an administrative one,” said Lt-Col Costus Mwangi, who was leading the recruitment.

He also said many identity cards still bear the former Kisumu District — now Kisumu County — even after the new boundaries were created, forming five sub-counties.

“These cases complicate the recruitment,” he said.

Reported by Patrick Langat, Geoffrey Rono and Tom Matoke