Teachers working in hardship and arid areas have a reason to smile after the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC) stopped the government from implementing a report that suggested reducing and scrapping of hardship allowances.
In a landmark ruling delivered today September 5, 2025 by Lady Justice Hellen Wasilwa, the court stopped the implementation of 2019 Inter-Agency Technical Committee Report on Hardship Areas Reclassification, as presented by the Office of the Prime Cabinet Secretary to Parliament that had proposed reducing hardship allowance and scrapping others altogether.
The court has therefore granted injunctive orders to Salary and Remuneration Commission (SRC), Public Service Commission (PSC), Office of Prime Cabinet Secretary, Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and the Attorney General’s office from scrapping or reducing hardship allowance payable to teachers and other Civil servants working in hardship and Arid areas of the Republic of Kenya until the petition is heard and determined.
This is after Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (KETHAWA) National Secretary Ndung’u Wangenye, who is also an Advocate of High Court of Kenya moved to ELRC in Nairobi in a Petition E086 of 2025 to seek a declaration that the tabling, adoption and intended implementation of the report is irregular, for lack of public participation and is unconstitutional, therefore null and void.
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It also wanted a declaration that the degazettement of hardship areas and withdrawal of allowances from affected regions violates Articles 27, 41, 43, and 47 of the Constitution and Kenya’s international obligations and is therefore a nullity.
A Conservatory Order restraining TSC, PSC, SRC, the Prime CS, and the Attorney General from implementing or acting on the report until proper public participation and legislative frameworks are adopted, and an Order of Mandamus compelling them to publish the full report, criteria used for reclassification, and conduct county-level hearings on its impact, and an injunction preventing any variation in hardship allowance payments pending full judicial review and stakeholder validation.
In the petition, Wangenye argued that there is no evidence of public consultation, scientific validation, or stakeholder engagement in the development of this report before its proposed implementation, which reclassified certain counties or sub-counties into “Extreme” and “Moderate” hardship categories while excluding others altogether.
He noted that the report affects 44 regions spreading across over 35 counties and over 129 sub-counties in the republic of Kenya which continue to suffer from inaccessibility, poor healthcare, insecurity, and under-resourced schools amongst other challenges, adding that teachers who are posted in these areas have long been recipients of hardship allowances as compensation for adverse working conditions.
“The proposed implementation of the report, currently under consideration for gazettement, will significantly reduce or eliminate hardship allowances for our teachers in affected areas,” reads the petition.
By Roy Hezron
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