Court to rule on teachers' pay rise on November 6

The court of Appeal will on November 6 determine if teachers deserve the 50-60 per cent pay award.

After four days listening to both the State and the teachers' unions, five appellate judges will finally give their verdict on the legality of Justice Nduma Nderi's judgement that awarded the 280,000 teachers the pay rise.

On the last day of the hearing, the court was told by Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) lawyer Judy Guserwa that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) was to blame for not preparing a provisional budget for the pay increase.

Justices Festus Azangalala, Philomena Mwilu, Erastus Githinji, Martha Koome and Otieno Odek were told that teachers could not be punished on the error of their employer.

"Teachers should not suffer for the failure by the Teachers Service Commission to present the 50-60 per cent pay increment for consideration when the budget for this financial was being prepared," submitted Guserwa.

The lawyer further argued that the commission had also ignored the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) directive made in 2013 that all independent bodies should sign a Collective Bargaining Agreement with their employees for a four-year cycle that was to start from July 1, 2013.

She argued that TSC waited until the end of grace period given by SRC to submit a letter that it intended to offer a pay hike to its employees.

"There were never any kind of negotiations between teachers and the commission since SRC issued the directive. The commission was aware that as of July 1, 2013, the unions ought to have signed a CBA. It had to wait until 2014 when the time had lapsed to write back on the proposal," the five judges heard.

The union's lawyer accused TSC of being a 'promise breaker' as it allegedly gave its word to the courts on settling the pay wrangles, only to go under after it got the orders after getting teachers back to class.

"Even if the commission agrees in court over something, it does not keep its word. Why then on earth can they come back to the court and ask it to set aside the award?" she posed.

At the same time, Attorney General Githu Muigai defended the Jubilee government for paying Sh1.3 billion owed to companies linked to the Anglo Leasing scandal.

The AG, in response to Kenya National Union of Teachers lawyers Paul Muite, John Mbaluto, Kioko Kilukumi and Hillary Sigei's separate submissions that the Government had misplaced priorities in terms of spending, argued the country would have lost out on its international bond if the monies were not paid.