Teachers Service Commission accused of withholding teachers' Sh1.5 billion

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) is withholding Sh1.5 billion disbursed by Treasury meant for settlement of a sum the court awarded over 52,000 retired teachers.

This came up yesterday during the hearing of a contempt of court case filed by the retired teachers, seeking to have TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia committed to civil jail for disobeying court orders.

Lawyer Dominic Kimatta, representing the teachers, told Justice Janet Mulwa that failure by Macharia to honour court orders to release the money amounted to contempt.

Kimatta told the court that the funds remitted to TSC accounts by Treasury was part of Sh6.5 billion budgeted in the Supplementary Budget-2016.

“Through the budget, the Government in appreciation that the matter needs to be settled, provided Sh6.5 billion for payment of pension but only Sh1.5 billion has been released to TSC. This is supposed to be passed to the application in settlement of the judgment,” he said.

SUING FOR CONTEMPT

He further claimed despite budgetary allocation in previous financial years, not a single penny had reached the applicants.

“Even with the provision of Sh1.5 billion, the sum has not been given to applicants,” he added.

The teachers are suing Macharia for contempt after a previous court order against former TSC boss Gabriel Lengoiboni was discharged by court in July 30, 2015, after he retired from the commission.

Justice Anyara Emukule had then sentenced Lengoiboni to civil jail after he failed to honour an order issued in October 23, 2012 to pay Sh16.7 billion to the retired teachers as per the collective Agreement of 1997.

Kimatta yesterday argued that it was the responsibility of Macharia, who took over from Lengoiboni, to ensure the court orders were honoured.

He told the court the case had been before the court for over 12 years, yet TSC had failed to honour orders issued after it lost appeal in Court of Appeal and Supreme Court.

Kimatta said contrary to the assertion from Attorney General’s office, details of all 52,338 retired teachers had been submitted to TSC and the AG’s office and filed in the court registry.

But TSC through chief State Counsel Wanjiku Mbiyu opposed the application, arguing the notice of motion filed in court was grossly defective as it was against Lengoiboni and not the current CEO.

“Orders issued against Lengoiboni cannot be transferred to the current CEO by filing these proceedings. There is no evidence that the orders have been duly served to the CEO,” she argued.

She said the Sh1.5 billion given to TSC was meant for pension and Macharia could not release the funds to the retired teachers as it was a matter under the office of the Director of Pensions.

The court will rule on May 31.