Retirement should mark a period of fulfilment, reflection and renewed purpose. A transfer should offer an opportunity for professional growth and fresh institutional leadership. Neither should become the beginning of an invisible contest for authority between the person leaving and the one assuming responsibility.
It is therefore concerning whenever allegations emerge of former school administrators continuing to exercise undue influence over institutions they have left. Equally troubling are situations in which serving administrators allegedly undermine their predecessors or resist legitimate transfers of authority. Such concerns deserve impartial investigation rather than public condemnation based on unverified claims.
A school is not an individual's private enterprise. It is a public institution entrusted with educating children, nurturing talent and preparing responsible citizens. Its existence transcends the tenure of any principal, board chairperson or member of staff. The office is temporary; the responsibility is enduring.
The difficulty of relinquishing authority
Why would someone who has successfully served as a principal find it difficult to allow a successor to work independently?
Psychology offers useful insights. Leadership can become closely intertwined with personal identity, social recognition, influence and a sense of purpose. After years of directing staff, making institutional decisions and representing a school, retirement can bring a sudden change in routine, status and perceived relevance.
For some individuals, adjusting to this transition may be emotionally demanding. Nevertheless, understanding the psychological challenges of retirement must never become an excuse for improper interference.
The answer is not to humiliate former administrators or disregard their experience. Retired principals can remain valuable contributors to education through mentorship, teacher development, consultancy, community engagement and professional associations.
There is, however, a fundamental distinction between offering advice and attempting to direct an institution from outside its administrative structure. The former is mentorship; the latter, where it amounts to improper interference, compromises accountability.
Your successor is not your competitor
An incoming principal inherits a demanding responsibility. They must manage teachers with different expectations, learners with varied needs, parents with legitimate concerns, financial obligations, examination responsibilities and institutional traditions.
The transition is challenging enough without competing centres of authority.
A successor deserves the opportunity to assess institutional needs, establish professional relationships, implement lawful policies and exercise the responsibilities attached to the appointment. Former principals should resist the temptation to measure every decision made by their successors against their own administration. Different leaders can employ different management approaches while pursuing the same educational objectives.
Equally, incoming principals must not interpret every contribution from a predecessor as hostility. Institutional knowledge accumulated over many years can be invaluable. Professional maturity requires distinguishing constructive advice from attempts to control.
The objective should be continuity where existing practices are beneficial and change where institutional improvement demands it.
Accountability must prevail
Kenya's Constitution provides an important foundation for professional accountability. Article 237 establishes the Teachers Service Commission's mandate, including the employment, assignment, promotion, transfer and disciplinary control of teachers within its jurisdiction. Article 236 protects public officers against victimisation for performing their duties lawfully and against disciplinary action without due process.
The Employment Act, 2007, also provides safeguards concerning fair employment practices. These provisions should not be misconstrued as specifically prohibiting every retired principal from communicating with a former school. Rather, they reinforce the broader principles of fairness, accountability and lawful employment management.
The relevant question is whether particular actions amount to professional misconduct, unlawful interference or another actionable offence. Retirement does not automatically make every allegation a disciplinary matter under employment law. The appropriate response must depend on the individual's status and the conduct complained of.
Nevertheless, personal influence should never be used to obstruct lawful administration, intimidate colleagues or undermine institutional authority.
The examination question cannot be ignored
Recent public discussions and media reports concerning examination administration have raised wider questions about the relationship between school administrators, examination officials and other education stakeholders.
The Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) has a statutory responsibility to conduct examinations and assessments, maintain standards and protect the credibility of national certification. School administrators, in turn, must facilitate lawful examination procedures and safeguard candidates.
These responsibilities should complement one another. No administrator should obstruct legitimate examination monitoring. Equally, examination officials must exercise their responsibilities professionally, respectfully and within established procedures.
KESSHA and other education leadership bodies have an important role in promoting constructive engagement between school administrators, TSC and KNEC. Differences should be resolved through evidence, dialogue and established institutional mechanisms.
National examinations are not personal contests between officials. They are defining milestones in learners' lives. No professional disagreement should introduce unnecessary anxiety, suspicion or instability into examination centres.
Learners should never pay the price
Perhaps the most overlooked casualties of leadership conflicts are learners.
Imagine a school where teachers receive conflicting instructions from a serving administrator and an influential former officeholder. Staff members become divided into competing camps, parents are drawn into administrative disagreements and learners begin to sense that the institution is no longer united.
Such an environment can undermine staff morale, professional collaboration and the consistency of school routines.
Research on principal succession highlights the effects of leadership transitions on teachers, institutional continuity and school improvement. Felipe Aravena's 2022 systematic review of research on principal succession emphasises the importance of succession programmes and balancing institutional continuity with necessary change.
The lesson is significant: replacing one principal with another is not merely an administrative exercise. It is an organisational transition requiring preparation, trust-building and institutional support.
Learners need stability. They should not become spectators in disagreements between adults entrusted with their education. Their concentration, examination preparation and emotional security must remain paramount.
What should TSC do differently?
The Teachers Service Commission has an opportunity to strengthen leadership transitions through a standardised handover and succession framework.
Such a framework should provide for comprehensive handover reports covering institutional finances, infrastructure, staffing, ongoing projects, examination matters and pending administrative issues. It should also establish clear dates for the transfer of authority, structured induction for incoming administrators and defined professional boundaries for outgoing officeholders.
Teachers and administrators should have confidential channels for reporting intimidation and improper interference. Where credible allegations arise, TSC should investigate impartially, protect all parties against victimisation and take appropriate action in accordance with the law.
Where repeated complaints point to a wider institutional problem, the Commission should consider an independent commission of inquiry or an appropriately constituted fact-finding mechanism to establish the extent of the concerns and recommend practical safeguards.
Such an exercise must not become a witch-hunt against retired administrators or an opportunity for incoming principals to settle personal scores. Its purpose should be institutional protection, professional accountability and uninterrupted learning.
Leadership is service, not ownership
There is life beyond the principal's office. A retired administrator can continue shaping education without controlling the daily operations of a school. Experience accumulated over decades can benefit mentorship, teacher training, community development and national education discourse.
The same expectation applies to transferred administrators. A transfer is not an institutional defeat; it is part of professional mobility within the education system.
Serving principals must equally prepare themselves for the day when another person occupies their offices. They should build institutions capable of functioning effectively beyond their individual leadership. A good administrator develops people, strengthens systems and distributes responsibility. A poor succession culture makes an institution dependent on one personality.
Schools are also places where learners observe adult behaviour and develop their understanding of responsibility, integrity and respect. When children witness adults disregarding professional boundaries, undermining successors or pursuing personal influence at the expense of collective responsibility, what lessons are they likely to carry into adulthood?
We cannot teach integrity in classrooms while practising its opposite in our professional lives.
Mark 10:43 in the Bible reminds us that greatness is demonstrated through service. Similarly, Surah An-Nahl 16:90 in the Qur'an calls for justice and good conduct. Both teachings affirm the importance of humility, fairness and responsibility in leadership.
To every serving principal: build an institution that can thrive beyond your tenure.
To every transferred administrator: leave professionally, hand over responsibly and allow your successor to work.
To every retired principal: celebrate your contribution, preserve your dignity and resist the temptation to govern an institution from a distance.
To incoming principals: respect institutional history, seek constructive guidance and lead without unnecessary hostility.
And to TSC: strengthen the systems that make leadership transitions peaceful, transparent and accountable.
Ultimately, what does it cost a leader to perform their duties with integrity, hand over peacefully and retire with a clear conscience? Very little compared with the damage that prolonged institutional conflict can inflict on teachers, parents and learners.
Leadership is not ownership. The greatest legacy of a principal is not an institution that remains under their influence, but one that continues to thrive long after they have left.
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