The national chief recruitment officer Brigadier Peter Magut said KDF will not bend the rules to favour those who secured a grade B and above in the Kenya Certificate Secondary Education.
“Anybody with a grade B and above cannot make a good soldier because once they are recruited they will still pursue higher education. So instead of enlisting candidates who will start seeking time off to go to university we opt to recruit those with minimum grades,” he said.
The brigadier, who is also Garrison Commander at Kahawa Barracks, spoke to the Sunday Nation at Afraha Stadium, Nakuru, on Friday during a recruitment exercise. More than 500 young men and women turned up.
Candidates who attained grade B but failed join university have had their hopes dashed at the recruitment centres countrywide owing to the strict recruitment procedure.
Only those with grades between B- and the minimum requirement of D+ are being considered for recruitment as privates, the lowest rank, in the ongoing exercise. But those with higher grades still have the possibility to join as cadets.
CON MEN
The brigadier also urged parents whose children have been recruited to join the armed forces to be wary of con men soliciting Sh150,000 to fast track the issuance of admission letters to the training college.
“Ours is a transparent legal process, and those who are lucky will get a one-page calling letter to join the training college and not the fake three-page letter,” said Brigadier Magut.
“These con men have changed their tactics such that in their invitation letter they have included wisdom as part of the testing in the recruitment exercise which is not correct because those wishing to join the forces don’t go through any knowledge test,” he said.
In Nakuru, hundreds of youths were disqualified for not having the right documents while others had documents that bore names that didn’t match the names on their national identification cards.
Others failed the physical fitness test while still others collapsed after running six kilometres.
“I was socked that some youth had between five and six teeth missing; such a person is a liability to the armed forces whom we can’t enlist,” he said.
The officer also said few women turned up for the exercise and added that the same trend was witnessed in central Kenya, mainly in Kiambu, Limuru, Embu, Thika and Nairobi and some parts of Eastern.
He said there was a big turnout in Rift Valley, mainly in Nandi, Kitale, Sotik, and Bomet while in Nyanza a high attendance was recorded in Kisii, Nyamira and Homa Bay. Many hopefuls also turned out in the Eastern region, especially Machakos and Kitui.
- Nation
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