As Nancy Macharia exits the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) after a ten-year tumultuous era, the incoming boss will be greeted with the Kshs 43 billion debt that has refused to part with the commission for the last 26 years involving thousands of retired teachers.
Dating back to the Daniel Moi’s KANU regime and having passed through the Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru Kenyatta and now William Ruto governments without being resolved, the teachers are at it again with afresh demands for the payments that resulted from the 1997 CBA negotiated by KNUT with government for the 150 % -200 % of salary increment.
About 52,318 former primary and secondary school teachers under the Retired Teachers Association (RTA) have failed to be paid by the successive governments despite going up to the Supreme Court which ruled in their favor. The amounts in the successive government have continued to grow interest.
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The Supreme Court under former deputy Chief Justice Kaplana Rawal had given the verdict before the expiry of the CBA. She had upheld the ruling of the Court of Appeal issued by Justice William Ouko of April 24, 2012 and the lower court’s decision of the then Nakuru High Court Judge David Maraga.
And since KUPPET had not been born when the CBA was agreed upon, the RTA is now inviting the secondary schools trade union to join hands with KNUT as friends in arm in the renewed push for the TSC Acting CEO Aileen Mitei to prioritize the payment as the TSC seeks for a substantive CEO.
Officials from the Trans Nzoia branch of RTA with representatives from the deceased teachers said in Kitale that the current Kenya Kwanza government has followed suit of their predecessors by showing no regard of clearing the arrears following the cut on budget for education and the reluctant release of balance capitation fees for the past school terms.
Led by the chair Nicholas Wafula and secretary Phillip Waweru, the Trans Nzoia RTA officials alleged that a big number of their members have died due the frustrations while awaiting and traveling to Nairobi to be paid the salary arrears, lump sum and monthly pension now amounting to over Kshs 43 billion.
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The CBA communicated in the Legal Circular No 13 and the Kenya Gazette Notice No 534 had to cover all the teachers in 5 phases but TSC managed to paid between 25% – 45% under the Mwai Kibaki NARC government for the first phase to teachers who were still on the payroll, ignoring those who had retired.
Like Nancy Macharia, Gabriel Lengoiboini exited TSC as the CEO without settling the ex-teachers remunerations as well as KNUT Secretary Generals Ambrose Adongo, Francis Ng’ang’a and Wilson Sossion who retired leaving their members in limbo.
An attempt to have Lengoiboini to be committed to civil jail by Justice Anyara Emukule on May 16, 2014 for contempt of court was challenged by TSC that asked for its suspension of 90 days under which period the teachers would have been sorted out.
And it seems the incumbent KNUT national team led by Secretary General Collins Oyuu may face the same challenges owing to the financial status of the government said to struggling to pay the Ksh 11.35 trillion local and foreign debts strangling the country’s economy.
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But TSC has been faulting the numbers of the retired teachers with one time putting it at 23,811 and another time at 16.523. Initially, KNUT in 1997 had forwarded the 123 billion to the Pension Scheme but which was later disputed by the Director of Pension, resulting in long-standing stalemate.
So far only those teachers who retired between July 1998 and June 2003 benefited from the CBA against the court order that had compelled the Director of Pensions to release Ksh 3.34 billion as contained in the 2021/2022 budget to clear for the second phase.
This had been confirmed by Dr Oburu Odinga in the communication from the Treasury to Parliament and the subsequent formation of a special committee headed by former Chief of Staff Joseph Kinyua to investigate the non-payment of the monies and whose terms were concluded in 2014.
Now, the Trans Nzoia RTA leaders are calling for fresh EACC and DCI investigations at the Pension department which is alleged to be biased in the release for pension saying the system was riddled with corruption.
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A cartel domiciled at the Treasury is said to be keeping personal of individuals as collateral for alleged loans advanced to them from the pension kitty to release the money but after deducting their cuts. The documents are only returned to the owners using the parcels vans to the rural areas.
“We find this as only unacceptable but also cruel from civil servants with integrity. Our only crime we committed is to work for the government diligently only to be dumped later together with our families. We were not sacked so that we can continue being frustrated at our old age,” they said.
BY ABISAI AMUGUNE
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