A legal battle has erupted between female teachers and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over allegations of unauthorized deductions from their salaries.
The dispute has drawn in the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC), the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet), and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut). At the center of the controversy is a group of five Kuppet officials who have filed a lawsuit against their own union, TSC, Knut, and EACC, on behalf of the affected female teachers. The plaintiffs, including Paul Rotich, William Lengoyiap, Robert Miano, Peter Oluoch, and Jentrix Ogola, accuse the defendants of violating the law and the constitutional rights of female teachers by allowing TSC and its CEO Nancy Macharia to make the unauthorized deductions.
According to court documents filed at the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Nakuru, the deductions, amounting to Sh200 per month and labeled as “Social Welfare Association (SWA)” on the teachers’ pay slips, do not specify the receiving organization. The officials allege that TSC and Ms Macharia have attempted to conceal the nature and cumulative amount of the deductions by intermittently stopping and resuming them, creating confusion among the affected teachers. The petitioners claim that despite repeated demands to halt the deductions, TSC and Ms. Macharia continued the practice, raising suspicions of personal interests at play.
They argue that by enrolling female teachers in an unknown entity and deducting money from their pay without authorization, the teachers have suffered financial hardship and injustice during these challenging economic times. In response to the complaints, TSC introduced an “exit button” for Kuppet and Knut members allowing them to leave their unions as a prerequisite for benefiting from the third phase of salary increments. The EACC confirmed receiving a complaint regarding the alleged illegal pay-slip deductions in May 2023 and stated that the matter is currently under active investigation.
Defending its actions, TSC filed a counterclaim alleging that the teachers’ petition contains misrepresentations of facts, employment law, and practice. Evaleen Mitei, the acting TSC director in charge of Human Resource Management, asserted that teachers have the ability to discontinue unauthorized deductions through the T-Pay system, rendering the allegations against the commission illogical and untenable. TSC claims that the SWA deductions were made on behalf of the Kenya Women Teachers Association (Kewota), a union to which one of the petitioners, Ogola, allegedly belonged since 2019, despite her denial of membership.
Notably, Knut has yet to file a response to the petition which could have far-reaching financial implications for unions and teachers’ welfare associations. As a result of the legal challenge, TSC has halted Burial and Benevolent Fund (BBF) deductions in favour of Kuppet, as per a memo issued to Mr Akello Misori, the union’s secretary-general.
Its indeed confusing. If the…
Its indeed confusing. If the TSC claims that the SWA deductions were made on behalf of the Kenya women Teachers Association,then what benefits would the members receive that the teachers service union could not provide. Seems like duplicity of functions at best,and at worst,someone was building a small nest for themselves.Corruption.