Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (KETHAWA) has moved to court to block the government’s move to degazette hardship areas.
In a petition filed at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nairobi, the teachers’ association blamed Teachers Service Commission, Public Service Commission, Salaries and Remuneration Commission, The Prime Cabinet Secretary and Attorney General of going against the 2019 Inter-agency technical committee report on hardship area reclassification.
They added that the move of degazetting already classified hardship areas violate the social economic and cultural rights of teachers already working in hardship and arid areas in the country.
KETHAWA intends to challenge the government’s imminent implementation of the 2019 Inter-Agency Technical Report on the reclassification of hardship areas in the country.
“In or around March 2025, the Prime Cabinet Secretary publicly tabled a report recommending the review of hardship areas in Kenya. The report proposes a controversial reclassification that places certain counties or sub-counties inter ‘Extreme’ and ‘Moderate’ hardship categories while excluding others altogether,” reads part of the petition.
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The teachers unions further stated that the report was allegedly composed by committee allegedly composing of various government bodies, however there was no evidence of public consultation, scientific validation, or stakeholder engagement in its development before its proposed implementation.
The association also disclosed in their petition that report when implemented will affect 44 regions spreading across over 35 counties and over 129 sub-counties in the country, which continue to suffer from inaccessibility, poor healthcare, insecurity, and under-resourced schools amongst other challenges.
“Teachers who are posted in this areas have long been recipients of hardship allowances as compensation for adverse working conditions, and the proposed implementation of the report, currently under consideration for gazettement, will significantly reduce or eliminate hardship allowances for our teachers in affected areas,” they stated.
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The association defended their move as a way to preserve the dignity, livelihood, and socio-economic rights of affected teachers working in these regions now arbitrarily reclassified as non-hardship areas without adequate justification or consultation. There was no public participation in the making of the Report.
The teachers’ association therefore, is calling upon the court to declare that the tabling, adoption and intended implementation of the 2019 Inter-Agency Technical Committee on Hardship Areas Report is irregular, for lack of public participation and is unconstitutional, therefore null and void.
It also want the court to declare 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.
Also they are urging the court to release a Conservatory Order restraining the Respondents from implementing or acting on the report until proper public participation and legislative frameworks are adopted.
And an Order of Mandamus compelling the Respondents to publish the full report, criteria used for reclassification, and conduct county-level hearings on its impact. e. An Injunction preventing any variation in hardship allowance payments pending full judicial review and stakeholder validation.
By Brian Ndigo
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