The Secretary General of the Retired Teachers Group 1997 RTG-1997 Gidraff Kimatta was the latest of a series of hundreds of retired teachers who have died without receiving any penny of his pension running into millions of shilling in a war that has dragged on for at least three decades.
Kimatta, 84, who died in Nakuru on September 2025 was the pillar leading the former teachers demand for the pension and salary arrears to give their family members and the RTA pensioners themselves decent lives at least before they succumb due to the complications of old age and other natural attrition.
The question that confusing most of the pensioners: who next after the death of the Secretary General of RTG-1997? And will he or she die the same Kimatta passed on without having won what they had saved for years while in the active age of working for the government especially in the noble teaching profession?
In 1997, the government entered into an agreement with KNUT for the salary increments for about 52,000 teachers which would be implemented in three phases but the MoU has been reneged on by the successive governments since then, forcing the teachers to seek judicial redress. The agreement had to cover for teachers who left job between 1997 and 2007.
The push for the release for the retirement by the retirees benefits pitting former the late Daniel Moi and Mwai Kibaki, Uhuru Kenyatta and now William Ruto seem to hit the rocks and they are now seeking fresh approaches to realize returns for their decades-spanning sweat.
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During Moi’s KANU regime, the former teachers were paid for first phase but the second payment during Kibaki’s NARC administration became a cropper that was extended to the Jubilee coalition under Uhuru who advised the matter be settled out of court. Attempts by the teachers’ leaders to meet Uhuru with a view of putting the matter to a close dragged on until he exited office on retirement in 2022 with the officials hoping the successive government inherits the case.
The retirees won the dispute in a ruling delivered in 2008 by the then High Court Judge David Maraga, a matter that was later to be upheld by the Court of Appeal and the Supreme Court in 2015. At one time, a senior official within the Teachers Service Commissioner TSC was sentenced to civil jail in a contempt of court order for refusing to release the funds but the official was quickly saved from the jail upon intervention by senior government officials.
Questions are being asked what miracle President Ruto will divine to solve what his three predecessors failed to achieve even when they had better performing economies.
In a recent meeting in Nakuru attended by representatives from various counties, the members laid out what they called penultimate trucks to use enforcing the government release the funds without further delays. The meeting was attended by among others the RTG-1997 chairman Joseph Mwenja and his vice David Kamau.
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Key among the fresh proposal to pursue the arrears is to institute fresh contempt of court proceeding against the Treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi, the Director of Pension, the Controller of Budget and the TSC acting CEO Evaleen Mitei who collectively have deliberately declined to act on the various orders of the judiciary to clear the outstanding arrears.
As the number of former primary school teachers continue to decrease, the RTG-1997 officials are looking into the possibilities of leading a delegation to State House for dialogue with Ruto after the last successful meeting he held discussions with the KNUT and KUPPET leadership.
They argue that despite their names missing out on the TSC payroll, they are still recognized as professional teachers and should be treated the same way with their colleagues still-in classroom.
The third is to mediate the matter out of court with all sides agreeing to table discussions. This, according to the complainants, is the easiest, non-expensive and quickest option.
By Abisai Amugune
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