The National Youth Service (NYS) is once again at the center of a mega-corruption storm, with the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) moving to block a staggering Sh6.2 billion payout to suppliers. In a saga reminiscent of the "NYS Season 1" theft, investigators have uncovered a syndicate of "air suppliers" demanding payment for food, uniforms, and diesel that were never delivered.

The High Court has frozen the payments following an urgent application by the EACC, which described the pending bills as "pure fiction" engineered by a cartel of rogue officials and proxy companies. The scandal threatens to derail the government’s austerity drive, exposing how deeply entrenched the culture of looting remains within the state agency.

The Anatomy of the Heist

Court documents paint a picture of brazen impunity. Companies with no physical addresses or prior trading history were issued Local Purchase Orders (LPOs) worth billions. The "goods"—ostensibly meant for thousands of recruits—exist only on paper. "We have verified the stores, the fuel registers, and the ration books," an EACC source revealed. "There is no evidence that a single bean or a drop of diesel was received. It is a ghost supply."

• Fictitious Factories: Several companies claiming to have supplied uniforms worth Sh800 million were found to be operating out of residential apartments with no textile machinery.
• The Insider Job: The anti-graft body has zeroed in on senior NYS procurement officers who allegedly inflated prices by up to 400% and backdated delivery notes to circumvent the new e-procurement systems.

Déjà Vu for Taxpayers

This latest scandal is a bitter pill for Kenyans, coming years after the Sh9 billion NYS scandal that rocked the previous administration. It raises serious questions about the efficacy of the IFMIS system and the vetting of pending bills. "If we pay this Sh6.2 billion, we are literally withdrawing cash from the Treasury and handing it to thieves," warned a Treasury official.

As the legal battle moves to court on January 25, the NYS, intended to be a premier vocational training institute for the youth, risks being cemented in the public psyche as nothing more than a cash cow for the corrupt elite.