No money to recruit JSS teachers, says Treasury CS Mbadi

CS National Treasury Economic Planning John Mbadi at the African Green Climate Finance National Designated Authorities Conference at Nairobi Hotel on Thursday, August, 22, 2024. [Samson Wire. Standard]

The Treasury has revealed that there is no money to employ Junior Secondary School(JSS) teachers amidst the looming nationwide strike.

Speaking in an interview on Thursday, treasury Cabinet Secretary John Mbadi said that the exchequer has inadequate finance to employ the 20,000 JSS teachers.

“We don’t have resources for recruiting JSS teachers on permanent and for the additional 20,000 that was reduced in the estimates,” Mbadi said on Citizen TV.

However, he admitted that the departmental committee of education had mentioned the payment, but the final figure that was carried to the budget omitted it.

 He noted; “There is a shortfall of about Sh.13 billion”

Mbadi said it has not been easy to even adjust the teachers' salaries as committed in the 2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement(CBA).

“There is no money availed for conversions unless we again do budget adjustments, which we really don’t have space for. This year is of challenges. We had to look around and see how we can raise the money we made available for teachers for their salary adjustments,” he said.

The government had allocated Sh.656b to the education sector, which should be released in a ratio of 50:30:20 respectively within the three terms.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) have announced a nationwide strike from August 26 demanding the government to begin discussions on new CBA, and recruit the new JSS teachers among other grievances.

Education CS Julius Migos has also concurred with Mbadi citing inadequate funding to meet teachers' demand.

However, the TSC Cheif Executive Officer Nancy Macharia on Tuesday  said that Sh.13bilion has been released for the implementation of phase 2 of the CBA ordering  teachers to call off the planned strike

“I beseech all teachers to report to school on Monday for the start of the third term now that the funds have been released for the implementation of phase 2 of the CBA and addressed all the issues,” said Machari.

Mbadi also weighed on the reports about adopting certain clauses from the withdrawn finance bill 2024.

He said that the bill had already been withdrawn, noting that the reports were made out of context after he sought clarification on why eco-levy was rejected.

“Eco levy is not one of the things that we are considering to bring back. We are not bringing back Finance Bill 2024; it is gone,buried, and withdrawn,” he clarified.

He further noted that he is not considering reintroducing any contentious clause that was rejected by Kenyans back

“There were many clauses in that Bill that were rejected by Kenyans and hence have no space under my regime. I have made it very clear to the President,” he added.

The treasury CS, however, mentioned that certain provisions in the Bill were progressive.

“For instance, why would one reject an amendment to increase excise duty on imported sugar from Sh5 to Sh.7.5 per kilogram to protect our sugar industry?” he posed.

He said the government was working on interventions to promote local industries by increasing productivity to meet local demands.

Mbadi noted that the alternative to boosting the exchequer is reducing expenditure and ensuring taxpayers comply.

“However, the best solution is to raise more revenue. This can only be done by ensuring the current system is strong enough to remove tax leakages and reform KRA.”