- Nominated MP Dorothy Muthoni has proposed doubling civil servants’ maternity leave from 90 to 180 days, a move that could overtake teachers’ current 120-day entitlement.
- Teachers currently receive 120 days of maternity leave and 21 days of paternity leave under the 2025-2029 CBA, alongside a two-hour daily breastfeeding permission for two months post-return.
- The proposal, if passed, could become a new benchmark for teachers’ unions to reference in future CBA negotiations with TSC.
A proposal to double maternity leave for Kenya’s civil servants from 90 to 180 days has put teachers’ own maternity benefits under a fresh spotlight, potentially setting up a new benchmark for future negotiations between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and teachers’ unions.
Nominated Member of Parliament Dorothy Muthoni is pushing for civil servants to receive six months of maternity leave, arguing that mothers need more time to recover from childbirth, bond with their newborns and breastfeed during the critical first six months of a child’s life.
For teachers, the proposal carries an intriguing twist. TSC-employed teachers already receive 120 days of maternity leave, 30 days more than civil servants under the current arrangement. But if the proposed six-month entitlement becomes law, that advantage would disappear overnight, potentially leaving teachers 60 days behind civil servants on maternity leave. That prospect is likely to propose an important reference point in future discussions on teachers’ terms of service, although a change affecting civil servants would not automatically alter TSC employment conditions.
The current 120-day maternity entitlement was secured through collective bargaining. Under the 2021–2025 CBA, maternity leave increased from 90 to 120 days, while paternity leave for male teachers rose from 14 to 21 days. The gains formed part of broader negotiations between TSC and teachers’ unions over employment and welfare conditions.
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The maternity debate has since evolved beyond simply counting leave days. Under the 2025–2029 CBA, TSC retained the 120-day maternity entitlement but introduced additional support for teachers returning to duty while breastfeeding. Circular No. 13/2025, dated August 18, 2025, provides lactating teachers with two hours of daily permission for two months immediately after they resume duty following maternity leave. The arrangement is designed to ease the transition back into teaching while allowing nursing mothers to attend to their infants.
The timing of the two-hour permission may be agreed upon with the head of institution, taking into account the needs of both the teacher and the school. A teacher seeking the benefit is required to make a written request and obtain approval. Where the head of institution is the one seeking the permission, the request is routed through the Sub-County Director of Education. The benefit, however, is temporary, running for two months from the date the teacher resumes duty.
This creates an important distinction between the existing TSC framework and the proposed parliamentary measure. TSC currently combines 120 days of maternity leave with a post-return arrangement for lactating teachers, while the proposed legislation seeks to give civil servants six months away from duty in the first place. That difference could become central to future teacher welfare negotiations. If civil servants eventually receive 180 days, teachers’ unions could use the new entitlement as a comparative benchmark when negotiating with TSC. Whether they would seek to match the six months, seek another arrangement or retain the existing structure would ultimately be a matter for collective bargaining and applicable policy and law.
The potential implications do not end with maternity leave. Teachers currently receive 21 days of paternity leave, an increase from the previous 14 days. Although Muthoni’s proposal focuses on maternity leave, a wider national conversation on parental leave could also bring renewed attention to the amount of time fathers receive to support mothers and newborns.
But teachers should not assume that a six-month civil-service entitlement would automatically become theirs. TSC operates under its own constitutional and statutory mandate, and teachers’ employment conditions are governed through the applicable TSC framework, including collective bargaining agreements. Any adjustment would therefore have to follow the appropriate process. For now, the position remains unchanged: TSC teachers continue to have 120 days of maternity leave and 21 days of paternity leave, alongside the two-hour daily permission for eligible lactating teachers for two months after returning from maternity leave.
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The real significance of the 180-day proposal lies in what could happen next. Should Parliament eventually approve six months of maternity leave for civil servants, it would create a new public-sector benchmark and potentially give teachers’ unions another issue to place on the bargaining table during future CBA negotiations. The proposal must first pass through the required parliamentary process before becoming law, and questions around its implementation, cost and staffing implications could arise during consideration.
Until then, there is no change to teachers’ current maternity terms. But the debate has already created an important comparison: teachers once had the longer maternity leave, and a 180-day civil-service proposal could reverse that position, putting the next TSC CBA negotiations under a very different spotlight.
By Hillary Muhalya
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