Pensioners long, painful wait for dues

By Ally Jamah

When he retired last year after several decades of teaching, Mr Wilson Kisangi looked forward to a happy and peaceful retirement.

But that was not to be: He has been moving up and down trying to get his dues.

He is also following up on his transfer allowance that he should have received in 2001 when he was moved from a school in Lamu to Vihiga and an erroneous deduction on his salary.

"The last time I visited the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters, I was told the allowance had been paid and I was shown a signed voucher to prove it. I never received the money," he says.

Several months

While he was still working, deductions were erroneously made on his salary and it took him several months to get TSC officials to stop them. Getting a refund is proving harder.

Letters and visits to TSC headquarters have yielded nothing.

"I am worried that I may also have to struggle for a long time before getting my retirement dues," he says.

Delays in processing teachers’ salaries and retirement dues are endemic and cases of lost files are common.

Ms Anne Kimani is in such problems. Three years after retirement she is yet to receive a shilling.

"I have been to TSC headquarters countless times and with every visit, I am promised that my case has been resolved," she says.

Last August, Kimani received a letter from the TSC, advising her that her case had been processed and file forwarded to Treasury for payment. She is still waiting.

Two years ago the commission developed a customer care policy in response to the high number of complaints from teachers.

The policy

Under the policy, all complaints were to be resolved within 14 working days. Customer care professionals were hired to boost the commission’s capacity to handle teachers’ complaints.

The initial enthusiasm seems to have faded. A visit to the TSC complaints department last week revealed that many teachers travel from far to resolve issues at headquarters. We met a teacher from Marsabit who was yet to receive his salary three months after he was transferred to a new school.

" I decided to come to Nairobi because I did not receive a response to my letters," says the teacher who refused to be identified for fear of being victimised.

But a teacher from Thika, who had come to check on his study leave application, says that service delivery, though not very good, had improved significantly in the past few years. "To be fair, TSC has made big strides. A few years back, it was a nightmare to get anything done," he says. But he says he would have preferred to check the status of his application online instead of travelling to the headquarters.

Resolved online

"I wish most teachers’ complaints were resolved online. We wouldn’t have long queues here and teachers would be saved the time and expense of travelling," he says.

Indeed, TSC’s website was unavailable most of last week.