TSC to decide KEWOTA's fate after 'payroll heist' expose

Kewota CEO Benta Opande at a past event. [File, Standard]

The Teachers Service Commission will on Wednesday hold a board meeting to discuss the fate of the Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA) following a media exposé on an alleged scheme to defraud female teachers.

Sources told The Standard that the commission will convene an emergency meeting after KTN aired an investigative report exposing an alleged multi- million ‘payroll heist’ where top officials were accused of hiring relatives and enabling corruption in the organisation.

The media report indicated that KEWOTA CEO Benta Opande has employed her four children with two of them earning Sh200,000 and the other two earning Sh250,000.

According to the expose, Opande has also hired her two brothers, among other relatives, forming a family working for the same organization that allegedly deducts teachers’ pay slips without their consent.

However, KEWOTA Secretariat dismissed the media report as malicious and false, terming it as an attempt to damage the organization’s reputation.

In a press statement released on Tuesday, KEWOTA indicated that all the employees at KEWOTA are qualified professionals hired through the established process.

“Every employee at KEWOTA holds the requisite qualifications for the jobs they hold and none has been employed outside the established process. Our books of account are current and available and accessible to all stakeholders,” reads the statement.

KEWOTA said the report lacked factual basis and professional integrity.

“We wish to state, without fear of contradiction whatsoever, that the allegations propagated therein are not only baseless but are a calculated fabrication,orchestrated with reckless disregard for truth, professional ethics, and the law,” said the Secretariat.

KEWOTA is a welfare group formed to empower female teachers and financed by monthly deductions from female teachers’ pay slips. Currently, the organisation has a membership of more than 80, 000 who contribute Sh200 per month.

In their rebuttal, KEWOTA claimed that the claims were orchestrated by a person they identified as Peter Amunga, terming him the primary source.

“Mr Peter Amunga has since formally admitted, in writing, that his assertions were unverified, misleading, and actuated by malice aforethought. This admission alone irredeemably collapses the credibility of the entire broadcast,” the statement reads further.

“KEWOTA views this as a deliberate and malicious stratagem intended to tarnish its reputation, undermine its leadership, and erode public confidence in its operations. Such conduct is not only reprehensible but legally actionable,” KEWOTA added.

The organisation said it has formally petitioned the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) to launch investigations into individuals and entities linked to the expose adding that the legal team would file a case against those responsible.

“KEWOTA shall not be cowed, intimidated, or distracted by orchestrated falsehoods. We remain resolute, steadfast, and committed to upholding integrity, transparency, and the rule of law.”

The association also defended its financial integrity, stating that its books of accounts are up to date and accessible to stakeholders.