Does teachers' pay deal expose TSC as weak?

President Uhuru Kenyatta’s directive to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to pay teachers their September salary though welcome, raises serious issues about the constitutional independence of the agency.

Indeed, the teachers’ unions - Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have been blaming the commission’s top management of incompetence following the five-week teachers’ strike.

The fact that the President had to order the TSC to release the frozen September salaries confirms what teachers have been arguing about during the recent strike.

Many believe the commission’s chairperson Lydia Nzomo and CEO Nancy Macharia were hostages in the standoff between the striking teachers and the commission.

The manner in which these officers handled the strike was proof that there was a hidden hand behind their actions. These outside forces have been micromanaging and directing the officers and the commissioners on how to whip teachers to a pulp. To ensure teachers’ submission, the agency froze the September salaries despite a labour court’s order to pay.

President Kenyatta’s intervention in the dispute, which is already before the Employment and Labour Court is not convincing enough. First, TSC as an independent constitutional commission is required to discharge its mandate without external influence, control or direction by any other person or authority.

Already, a judgement of the case against TSC’s refusal to pay the September salary is expected to be made on November 20 this month.

Besides, Knut had planned to appeal the judgement of the Court of Appeal’s ruling that dismissed the 50-60 per cent pay increments for teachers. The condition set by the president that both parties drop the court cases before the salaries are paid is a big blow to teachers.

Teachers feel betrayed by union leaders who have agreed to the other conditions. These include fresh negotiations for a new collective bargaining agreement (CBA) and subjection of teachers to a job evaluation. The other condition is that teachers must acknowledge the role of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission in setting their salaries and allowances.

By agreeing to these conditions, the union leaders who have met the President appear to have cracked under pressure to abandon the pursuit of justice through the courts.

There is real fear that the truce President Kenyatta brokered between union leaders and TSC is not genuine. Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion has said he was not involved in the deal.

His absence in the talks at State House has fueled speculation that his Chairman, Mudzo Nzili may have acted on his own.

Indeed, a picture supplied to newspapers from State House depicts Mr Nzili in an extremely tense posture devoid of the jovial mood expected of a break-through deal. During a televised address to the nation during the strike, President Kenyatta said his Government did not have money to pay teachers increased salaries. A few weeks later, the President wants teachers to negotiate a new CBA within a month.

What President Kenyatta did not tell the nation is where TSC will get the money to effect pay increments that may be agreeable to all the parties in the middle of the financial year.

TSC is also likely have a problem in getting money to pay the extra allowances the President said should be paid to those who worked during the strike.

The code of regulation for teachers recognises eight types of allowances. They include house, commuter and responsibility allowances.

Others are medical, responsibility, special, transfer and readers allowances that are part of Sh174 billion annual budget for teachers’ salaries.

Many teachers are worried of losing their pension and other benefits when TSC rolls out performance contracts.

They argue that their employer should have paid them their dues for the years worked before introducing the contracts. This argument is reinforced by failure by the agency to pay teachers who retired in 1997 their pension benefits.