[4] After successfully completing the compulsory national service, the recruits are sent to technical and vocational schools within NYS to train in various fields such as agriculture, engineering and hospitality.

These were youth organisations controlled and financed by the Israeli government to instil a sense of "national purpose", and to "conduct civic and social duties".

As a result of the lessons learnt in Israel, Mboya hoped to transform the youth wing of his People's Congress Party into a formidable political tool.

It was this Mboya-Kariuki group that would work with the Israelis to set up the National Youth Service all as part of Israel's efforts to build close ties with the Kenyatta administration.

Israel also impressed upon president Kenyatta to embrace the Kibbutz idea – a collective community farming system staffed and operated by trained youth as pioneers.

Steven Carol,[6] a foreign policy scholar on the Nahal says that the East African experiment did not yield fruit because most of the youth were illiterate and unlike the Israelis "they had no avowed enemy, or marauding terrorists across the border".

To address these challenges, the government in 2018 began a journey of reforms at NYS that was aimed at dealing with endemic integrity problems, building capacity and professionalizing the organization.