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KENYA’S TSC SHOULD BE JAILED.
In three years, I find myself agreeing with my president over an issue.
Matters pertaining to the economy must not be handled casually and
frivolously. That the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the government
agency governing the education sector, panicked at the proposals of pay rise
from 300 per cent to 600, then too to 300 percentage, smacks of a scandal.
How do you panic at nonsense, and be tricked to come up with a proposal
that you know is quite untenable, for over a quarter million people?
My point of departure with President Uhuru Kenyatta is just one: that not a
single cent should be added to the teachers’ pay. He is being criticized for
saying that the minimal entry point for the lowest teacher is Kshs.23,600.00.
In fact it is Ksh.25,600.00. The Kenya civil servants are obscessed with
quoting only the basic or net pay, leaving out the allowances. But the
Kshs.9,000.00 which is added even at that lowest level is also payment. It
leaves a dent in the government revenuel base.
All the same, Uhuru’s position that nothing can be paid is as wrong as the
TSC’s original position. Kenya’s economy is not all that narrow. I still
maintain that a 20-30 percent raise can be easily sustained by the economy
without any adverse effects. If anything it would increase the purchasing
power of half a million people with very positive impact on the overall
performance of the economy. Even the arrears of Kshs.67 billion if reduced
to Kshs.33 billion can be easily sorted out through budgetary cuts and
minimal internal borrowing. In time, even the dreaded harmonization with
other ministries can easily be achieved.
It is the problem we have at hand that makes it necessary to punish the
TSC. With children not going to school months on end in an examination
term, and the government so messed up many people believe it should step
aside, some mistakes can be that expensive.
In the first place, they caused the problem last year in December when the
teachers gave them notice for a strike. They retorted by hiking their own
staff salaries by over 100 per cent, as if the teachers’ threat is what they
were waiting for to make them swing into action. That made them play
directly into the teachers’ hands. Recently when the teachers union KNUT
secretary-general Mr. Wilson Sossion was cornered to justify his quest for a
raise, he could only say that the TSC staff were being paid better than the

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teachers. Of course he is aware that TSC is a constitutional office with only a
handful of staff, compared to the mammoth that are the teachers.
If the country was to argue the way Sossion does, even nurses and other
essential job holders would be earning flat salaries and the government
would lose their services to the private sector and even oversea countries in
spite of the cost and process of training such expertise. Sossion even
pretends not to know that even tradesmen hired by the teachers’ Saccos
earn higher salaries than their employer, the teachers. Because they make
the money.
Teachers have three months holiday in a year, 8 days rest in a month, which
is another three months in a year, totaling into over half a years’ rest. Other
workers do not have that kind of time allowance. They are useful, we all
concur. But the economy cannot be placed on tenterhooks because we have
to appreciate them. In the end the damage caused to the economy would
cancel their own ephemeral joy and public appreciation. Then everybody
would be in trouble.
This time round it all boiled down to a nasty imbroglio and the whole thing
smacked of a conspiracy to rip off the system, to make a killing by the TSC,
teacher unions, the judiciary and the large-mouthed lawyers. The court was
inciting teachers. Industrial judge Nduma Nderi gave the government two
weeks to raise Kshs.67 billion. Teachers became so worked up they went
into strike without bothering about the mandatory strike notice. All this was
most unfortunate and has caused the pupils and parents dearly.
When trade union activism reaches a peak that you feel like your profession
is no longer a calling, the best option is to move to another level, into
politics, before you destroy so many lives in the process of being a bull in a
china shop. Wilson Sossion’s disappointment with the Jubilee government is
threatening to prove a costly affair for the whole nation. When he was
cautioned against mixing politics with career, entering into political pacts
with people he did not know well, taking advantage of the influence
bestowed on him to advance personal and sectarian ambitions, he ignored
the advice of those who know better. Now the chickens are coming home to
roost.
Uhuru Kenyatta is busy pouring salt into the wound. Reading the riots act at
the state house, he declared there is no salary raise whatever. He has

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warned the courts and stakeholders in advance, the schools have been
officially closed down. The teachers themselves are worried of their fate as
plans to hire fresh graduates are in speculation. No one knows where the
country is headed as harsh winds of want and fury blow over the land.
The irony of it all, President Uhuru Kenyatta is talking tough at teachers, but
spares their collaborators, the TSC which conspired to forment this trouble in
the first place. If I were the head of state, TSC would have been disbanded
like yesterday, given the impact of their laxity.
It seems Uhuru is abetting tribal incompetence. Both TSC bosses are
Kikuyus and the chairlady Lydia Nzomo is a Kikuyu married to a Kamba.
When Mr.Gabriel Lengoiboni, a Kalenjin led the TSC there were not these
funny stories of conspiracy. When a Kalenjin, Joshua Rugut, let the National
Youth Service (NYS) there were no looting allegations. This is not ethnic
profiling, but everything has to be laid on the table if Kenya is to be helped.
The colonial powers groomed and depended almost entirely on the skills of
the Luos when it came to being answerable. Their being less selfish enabled
them to deliver. People who feel that their hiring is an opportunity to make a
killing are running down this country, more so if they shunt out people with
proven track record in management.
By:
FREDERICK OWINO OYARO.
E-MAIL: frederickoyaro@gmail.com