Retired Kenyan teachers still waiting for pension despite court orders

NAIROBI: Retired teachers have been in endless court battles with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over salary arrears and consequential pensions based on the Collective Bargaining Agreement of 1997.

The more than 52,000 retired teachers won a 2006 suit in May 2014 in Nakuru High Court, where TSC was ordered to release the money in unpaid pension in the 2011/2012 financial year.

Resident Judge Anyara Emukule said there was no evading the payments since it was the right of teachers.

"There is no escaping paying these teachers who delivered their services to the Government for several years. There are succession laws that will ensure their dependants are paid if some will not be there," Emukule said.

However, Treasury did not come to any negotiations on the terms of payment.

In December 2014, hope for the teachers was restored after the Treasury agreed to pay Sh16.7 billion worth of pension to 31,000 teachers.

Treasury said the pension would be paid but 'small technicalities' were holding the money.

The payment followed a successful negotiation to raise salaries between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the TSC in 1997.

The total salary reward was to be paid in five phases based on a 150 to 200 per cent scale for the various job groups.

Only the first phase was effected that year and the remaining parts were suspended until 2003.

President Mwai Kibaki's administration honoured the remaining phases between 2003 and 2007.

But the December Christmas gift was not delivered to the retired teachers after the office of the Attorney General Githu Muigai expressed challenges in delivering the money.

Prof Githu revealed to The Standard in an earlier interview that the matter had been referred to the Supreme Court for arbitration.

He also distanced himself from claims levelled against him by legislators that he was the stumbling block to teachers' dues.

The AG said the centre of the controversy was whether the retired teachers' pension should be processed based on their last pay at the time they exited service or on what they should have earned after a teacher's union successfully negotiated their new pay.

"The question of what salary is to be taken into account in computing the pension due to the teachers is pending before the Supreme Court as both High Court and the Court of Appeal did not resolve this critical issue. The AG is acting for TSC and is not a party per se," he said.

Members of the Education House Committee have threatened to recommend the sacking of the AG, citing incorporation in efforts to frustrate the teachers by failing to attend committee meetings.

To date, no clear deal has been arrived at by the Government and the retired teachers, with negotiations being reduced to endless court battles. Outgoing TSC boss Gabriel Lengoiboni has also been found in contempt of court for not paying the teachers as ordered. The court had given Inspector General 60 days to arrest Lengoiboni in March.