Only one female among nine was selected in the recent Kenya Defense Forces (KDF) recruitment exercise that took place on Friday in Murang’a East Sub County.
The team leader of the recruitment exercise, Lt. Col. Hosborn Wasike, said that during the exercise, they ensured that all the successful candidates were physically fit, had the required paperwork, and were in good medical condition.
“The exercise was smooth. We were checking for all the required documents and certificates while observing gender parity,” He said adding that only those who met the set minimum requirements were selected.
Wasike said that the selection process was fair and transparent since they were only picking qualified candidates out of the hundreds of youth who turned out to try their luck.
“Over 400 youths had applied for the recruitment exercise that took place at Ihura Stadium,” he said, adding that the turnout was fairly ‘good’ as he was conducting recruitment in four divisions in Murang’a East sub-county, namely Gaturi, Kiharu, Gikindu, and Kimathi divisions.
Wasike divulged that most of the disqualified candidates did not have their documents and certificates in order, whereas others were eliminated on medical grounds like vision impairment and failure to meet the minimum required grades.
He said the majority had an issue with a mismatch of names where the names on their documents did not match those on their identity cards.
“Most of the candidates had their names appear differently in their certificates and were not matching with the names in their ID cards,” he said, adding that it was interpreted to mean they were two different people in question, hence grounds for ineligibility.
Further, a number of youths that turned up did not belong to the divisions that fall under the recruitment centre; therefore, they had to be sent to their right centres.
He said that the KDF recruitment drive in the sub-county was looking to recruit in three categories: regular recruits, cadet graduates, and defense forces constables.
“For the regular recruit category, we were able to get seven males and one female. Defense constable, we were able to get one male,” he said, adding that they were not able to get a suitable candidate for a cadet graduate.
He further said that one of the criteria the recruiters were using in the elimination process was age. For regular recruits and cadets who graduate, they must not have celebrated their 26th birthday, while for defense constables, one should be above the age of 35 and not beyond 55 years.
“We advertised the age limit for each category, but further to that, we are pegging one’s age on when we are now converting towards the reporting day so that on that particular date, the potential candidate recruited should not have passed beyond the required age,” he said.
Another criterion used to select defense constables, added Wasike, included that one must be either an ex-KDF or ex-National Youth Service officer with ‘very good conduct’ remarks on his discharge report form.
The officer urged those who did not make it during this year’s recruitment to try their luck next time.
By Anita Omwenga
