Ruto throws a Ksh.100M cast net for teachers in apparent takeover of TSC mandate

While State House visits have been frequented by small business groups, boda bodas, political mobilisers, preachers and other regional representatives, the meeting with teachers was one of a kind. One would never have imagined that the much-respected professionals would be at State House from as early as 3.00 am, waiting for a meal, presidential niceties, and later que for Ksh. 10,000 reimbursement. 

According to Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) National Chair Omboko Milemba, the 10,000 teachers received Ksh.10,000 each as "transport reimbursement." This sums up to Ksh.100 million, that the host, President William Ruto spent on reimbursements.

"Teachers never went to State House just for money. Teachers were going to look at their issues...Transport reimbursement for teachers was Ksh.10,000,” Milemba, who is also Emuhaya Member of Parliament told Citizen TV on Tuesday.  

A cast net for teachers

At State House, teachers not only walked away with a total of Ksh.100 million, as many things were promised to them. 

The promises came fast and thick and the teachers seemed well pleased with themselves save for one thing, some of these promises were management or policy issues, which their employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should have been the one doing. 

Kenya’s general elections are within the next two years, as such, most political observers would not let this “Waalimu na Rias” forum go unchecked as they raised pertinent, issues which the executive said that encroached on the tuff of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). 

However, President Ruto had other ideas about the forum and described the meeting as “an opportunity to engage professionals on issues that directly affect the country’s future, rather than a political gathering.” 

To forestall political insinuations concerning the meeting, the President was categorical that the conversation with teachers was to strengthen the role of teachers in shaping Kenya’s future, not to play politics, as others may have supposed. 

“I called you here not because of politics but so that we can talk on matters of education and Kenya at large,” the president said. “I want you, through your officials, to address the matters concerning you that I can deal with as part of the Kenyan professional community.”

Executive taking TSC mandate

During the ‘Waalimu na Rais Forum,’ the president promised to do a number of things which did not sit well with observers in light of the powers and functions of the TSC, under which the recruitment, management and welfare of all teachers is vested in. 

Many felt the President usurped the powers of the TSC in promising to promote special needs teachers by taking them one grade higher which in itself is a function of the TSC according to its internal policies and merit. 

He further promised to hasten the National Social Security Funds (NSSF) benefits to teachers to be paid within ten working days and eventually to one day. Again, many felt is a function within purview of the TSC and he ought to have left the matter be dealt with administratively. 

Further, President Ruto promised to soon switch the fixed Ksh.200 NSSF teachers’ contribution to a six per cent employee contribution and a matching six per cent from the government to guarantee a decent retirement package for teachers. 

He also promised to review the current teachers’ medical cover, a function covered by the TSC, to ensure it is aligned with the current health needs of teachers.

He then promised to have a sessional paper submitted within 45 days to support proposed education reforms whose contents remain a mystery yet the teachers, as primary stakeholders should have been a party to this mooted policy paper, to guarantee a buy-in once it is introduced.

The Head of State also addressed the thorny issue of teacher promotions, noting that nearly 400,000 teachers are eligible for promotion, as stagnation has long weighed down the profession.

He challenged education stakeholders to urgently review the career progression guidelines so that teachers can be rewarded fairly and timely for their service.

The President also promised teachers they would be assigned at least twenty percent of houses within the affordable housing units and towards this end, he proposed a Memorandum of Understanding with the teachers be signed to seal the deal. 

The big question in the room arises here, teachers are professionals who are important in society but so are the doctors, nurses, college and university lecturers, and all cadres of civil servants. Is there preferential treatment herein or all these groups of professional servants will each receive their portion of twenty percent of affordable housing units? Will it be sufficient for all?

Although article 237 of the Kenyan Constitution establishes the Teachers Service Commission, it is the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Act, an Act of Parliament, that gives it the wherewithal to function in particular and various ways. 

Many independent commissions in the country are set up to ensure they are managed professionally in line with the law that sets them up and by inverse, are set away from the executive overreach among other reasons. 

However, some commentators within the education sector feel that TSC has for some time held down its space, carrying out its mandate without undue influence but regrettably, like other independent commissions, is now suffering the executive’s overreach by allowing decisions on management and internal policy matters concerning teachers to be issued from the executive arm of government.

The functions of the TSC among others, is to register trained teachers in the country, recruit and employ the same, assign the teachers to stations in the country, promote and transfer the teachers and advise the government on matters relating to the teaching profession in the country. It therefore goes that when the President promised within the same forum to stop the delocalization of teachers that he was still talking about matters that are best left to the TSC to handle.

Delegation after another

Lately there have been delegations from many walks of life to the house-on-the-hill, the State House, and the President seemed keen to answer critics beforehand over these delegations when he reminded the teachers that as Head of State, it is within his directive to decide who visits the seat of power. 

“I know there are questions… what have teachers gone to do in the State House and why this meeting is happening. Right now, I am the head of this ‘household’ by the will of God and through your votes. And the one who decides who comes here and who doesn’t, isn’t it me? So if I say teachers should come here, why the questions?” he posed.

As the defining moment for all politicians draws nearer by the day in 2027, the thin line between what is done by the politicians, including the President, for the common good and posterity vis-s-vis what is done for political mileage will be growing ever thinner. 

Of interest here, however, is what concerns the independent commissions and just “how independent is independent?” Analysts have belabored the point that one of Kenya’s leading governance problems has been the lack of respect for public institutions and watering down of independent institutions by various administrations to consolidate power within the executive. 

In a country where the carrot-and-stick method of coercion has worked for many years, it remains to be seen just how effective these moves will be in the upcoming general elections. As for the institutionalization of governance in the country, Kenya still has a long way to walk… hopefully it will get there soon.