NYS Technical Training Institute Naivasha is one of the National Youth Service training institution located at Nakuru County, Naivasha Sub-County, along North Kinangop, 14kms from the Naivasha-Nakuru Highway.

The Unit has an acreage of approximately 53.4 hectares of which 25 acres being under cultivation while the rest is occupied by servicemen/women barracks, staff quarters, classes, messes, roads, parade ground and a natural forest.

The Unit is one of the oldest NYS Units established way back in 1966 as a women training Unit (basic training) and was known by the name Naivasha Women Training Unit; the status it held until 1990 when both female and male recruits training programs were merged to train at NYS College Gilgil.  Since then the Unit has been engaged in various activities which among them include; Pre-university program for women which the Unit hosted in the year 1984 – 1988.  From 1990 – 1998 the public Universities were tasked with double intake, the Unit hosted the Laikipia Campus for that task.  In the year 1999, the Tailoring and Dressmaking School now School of Fashion and Design was relocated from NYS College Gilgil to this Unit.  On 6^th April, 2000 the Unit was renamed NYS Technical Training Institute from its previous name Naivasha Women Training Unit.

In the year 2007, the Institute was engaged in training 500 NYS Section Officers who are currently in the ranks of Inspectors and Sgts.  In the year 2008, it hosted the Administration Police recruits who trained 5000 recruits in two intakes.  In 2009, the Kenya Defence Forces trained 2500 recruits in the Unit.

DRIVING SCHOOL

The Unit hosted our Driving School from 2011 – 2013 when the local MP threatened to table a motion in parliament to be allowed to take over the Institution as it was idle and make it a referral hospital.

ACHIEVEMENTS

UNIT STRENGTH

The Unit has made tremendous growth in terms of staff and volunteers participating in both educational and social economic activities.  Currently the Unit has a strength of 8124 servicemen/women from the previous 1000 servicemen/women on both Vocational and National Service. The Unit had been under-utilized until the recruits number was increased in 2014 and it became a Paramilitary Training ground for recruits.

UNIT CORE FUNCTIONS

The Unit has three core functions in relation to the five point vision and lies under three pillars;

1. Paramilitary Training and Service Regimentation

It is a sub-training unit of NYS College training 5500 recruits per intake.  The Unit has already handled six trainings totaling to 25,461  recruits.

2. National Service and Youth Resocialization

The Unit falls under Agri-business as we have farm which raises AIA for the Government (Target 5  million)  which has increased from the previous of 1.5 million.

3. Social Transformation and vocational training

The Unit has two schools i.e Centre for Early Childhood Education which offers Diploma/Certificate level in ECDE and School of Fashion Design which offers Diploma/Certificate level in Fashion Design Course and also offers ICTT.Both schools have increased their intakes from 240 to 800 S/M/W and students.

LINKAGE WITH OTHER INSTITUTIONS

The Institute links well with other institutions for example Kenya Teachers Training College (KTTC) and Moi University who normally deploys their students for teaching practice.  Directorate of Industrial Training and Companies like Rivertex Eldoret and Bedi Fashions Nakuru which offers attachment to our students undergoing Fashion and Design course.  The widest in field attachment is CECE School which covers most of the pre-schools in Nakuru, Gilgil and Naivasha.

NYS PRIMARY SCHOOL /ECD CENTRE

The Institute has a Primary School which has an ECD and currently have gone up to class eight under the Ministry of Education and serves as one of our attachment centres for our ECDE students.

EXTRA CURRICULUM ACTIVITIES

The Institute conducts extra curriculum activities for our trainees and comprises of all ball games for servicemen/women and recruits in which at times extend to other colleges and institutions within the County including the neighbouring community in friendly tournaments and matches.  The Unit has sports and games events on Wednesday’s afternoons and daily practices at 5.00pm.

HIV/AIDS AWARENESS PROGRAMMES AND HEALTH NEEDS

The Institute has a VCT centre which caters for staff, servicemen/women and the neighbouring communities.  Counselors are trained through the assistance of Engender Health and NYS Aids Control Unit.  Our staff, servicemen/women, recruits and the  neighbouring community are sensitized about behavioural change. This is done from time to time in liaison with NYS Headquarters ACU.

The Unit has a dispensary which caters for minor health needs of our staff, servicemen/women, recruits and surrounding community but serious referral cases are attended at the Sub-County District Hospital at Naivasha.

FARM

We have a farm which measures approximately 25 acres of land.  The farm specializes in planting horticulture crops like cabbages, kales, onions, carrots, potatoes, maize, tomatoes and cucumbers.  There are green houses where we plant tomatoes/cupscum.  The products from the farm are consumed by our servicemen and the rest sold to our sister NYS units to raise AIA.We have raised our AIAcollection from 1.5 million to 5 million shillings per financial year.

ENVIRONMENT

The environment is very conducive for training and learning with many trees planted to make it fresh, friendly and improve health as we are in the middle of a natural forest that naturally keeps the water fresh and flowing throughout all seasons.  An addition indigenous trees are planted annually and extended up to our water catchment area at the Aberdare intake located at North Kinangop.

PRIORITIZED CHALLENGES

1. Dispensary

The Unit has a dispensary manned by three registered community health workers seconded from the Ministry of Health and one enrolled nurse who is a uniformed officer (Sergeant).

Staff requirement;

Clinical officer – 1

Nurses – 2

Lab technician – 1

2. Sewage system

The Station has no sewer system as it is very far away from the main town of Naivasha which is 17kms away.   It has three septic tanks, which have to be exhausted regularly.  The Cost of exhausting the three tanks is Kshs.1,200,000/= per month with the current strength.  I would propose that we purchase 2 acres of land at a cost of 3million per acre for the construction of treatment plant as a long term solution.  For short term remedies we can remove silt from the septic tanks at a cost of Kshs.1,800,000/= which will reduce the cost of exhausting from Kshs.1,200,000/= to Kshs.800,000/=  per month.

3. Rentokil/Sanitary Services

The Station has a total of 2413 servicewomen who require this service.  Of late this item has been omitted from the AIE’s and I would request it to be included in all the 4 quarters.  This will prevent all stations with servicewomen to stop disposing them in a crude way of burning which is unhealthy and unhygienic.  Our total expense per month is Khs.696 per bin x 120 bins x 2 = 167,040 as it has to be collected twice because of cycles and the large number of servicewomen recruits.  In a quarter 167,040 X 3 = 501,120 per quarter.

4. Procurement

This section has a challenge with staffing.  It has four stores catering for 8500 servicemen/women i.e;      -Ration store

-Warehouse

-CECE School Store

-School of Fashion and Design store

Current status

SCMO1            –           1 -Head of Procurement

SCMOII           –           1-Deputy Head of Procurement

SCM                –           2-Corporals

Requirements

SCMA II          –           1

SCM                –           2 Corporals (Uniformed)

5. Accounts Section

This is the highest hit and has only one member of staff.

Current status;

CPA III – I (Inspector)

Required;

CPA II              – 1

CPA I               – 1

6. Farm

We have put 25 acres on cultivation whereby we have 4 green houses with tomato plants and capsicum which is consumed in our servicemen/women kitchen.  The other part of the farm is utilized in growing cabbages, kales, potatoes and carrots. Our current AIA target is 5 million which we are able to meet.

Challenges

• The farm has a dam and only needs piping to enable us be more productive all the year round without depending on rainfall as our crops only takes 3 months to grow. We can have 4 seasons in a year and be able to double our AIA collection to 10million double what we are collecting in two seasons.
• The uphill farm has no electricity and has a total of 240 servicemen. This has been captured in our procurement plan.
• Farm store/mess/kitchen

The farm has no store for storage of farm produce before it is delivered to respective destination.  We also need a servicemen mess for recreation where they can watch TV and also for eating purposes.  The farm unit also needs a decent Jua kali kitchen.

7. Beds/Mattresses

During the financial year 2017-2018, we constructed 2 semi-permanent barracks with a capacity of 120 double decker’s each which translates 240 beds and mattresses for each barrack.  This will total to 480 beds and mattresses for the 2 barracks.

8. Weighbridge

The Station needs this very important equipment for weighing most of our stores which are bulky and especially firewood.  This item attracts a lot of money and we are not sure whether we are getting value for money as procurement personnel only uses their sight to estimate the tons.  A survey had been done there earlier by Avery K. Ltd and given a cost of 5million for installation of the same.

9. Camp Fencing

The camp has no fencing especially the upper hill camp. The camp has a natural forest and most of the times we have conflict with the neighboring   communities who want to        encroach it.

10. Transport

The unit has 4 vehicles:

1. Landmark –   for the Commanding Officer   which  is in bad shape
2. Ambulance – 1
3. Mitsubishi Lorry – 1
4. Fire Engine –  1  (has  mechanical defects)

Requirements

1. Water boozer – 1 No. –to enhance the water system from Aberdare.
2. Minibus – 1 NO (for taking students to tours, exhibition, shows and also ferrying recruits to hospital and especially the first one month of admission when the recruits are vulnerable due to weather changes.
3. Landcruiser/double cabin – for local running and checking  of the  water system at Aberdares –No.1

1. Sewage exhauster vehicle – which will reduce the large amount of money paid to private exhausters. We only need to pay some fee to sub-county for the disposal of waste

11. Borehole

The station needs a borehole which will enhance both our water consumption and also for        irrigation of our crops.it will enable us continue growing crops all the year round even         when the dam is dry.

            PRIOTIZED OPPORTUNITIES

1. RRI Tree planting

We have enhanced our tree planting from the 10,000 planted during the last rainy season    to 800,000 seedlings which are in our nurseries to be planted in October.

2. Farm

With irrigation in place we can be able to raise our A I A target from 5 million to 10    million per financial year.

3. Apiary Construction – Bee Keeping.

We would like to embark on the above mentioned project for production of honey.  NYS Naivasha is an ideal place because of the natural forest in the  Station  and also Flower Companies around. Please see attached proposal.

 Horticulture Crops Preservation.

We intend to preserve our horticulture products so that we can reach s/m/w in the Arid and   Semi-arid areas. We will also make profit during the rainy season when cabbages, potatoes, carrots are sold at a through away prices.  We can buy this produce, preserve them and later sell then to the same communities during the dry spell when they are very scarce.