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Teachers will have to wait longer to get a new Teachers Service Commission (TSC) boss after the court ordered the re-advertisement of the CEO post.
The High Court has ordered the TSC to re-advertise the Chief Executive Officer position afresh.
Justice Dolla Chepkwony, in her judgment, said that the commission violated its own rules on the timelines set for a recruitment process.
She further observed that the TSC never gave an explanation why it had shortened the timelines to just 13 days. According to her, the vacancy announcement did not offer a fair chance to all persons who were interested in heading the teachers’ employer.
“A recruitment window shortened below the recruiting body's own published minimum, without explanation or justification tendered in these proceedings, is not a mere irregularity of form; it is a substantive curtailment of the opportunity of otherwise qualified members of the public; including, materially, the interested party, all serving teachers directly regulated by the first respondent, to compete for the office on equal and fair terms,” said Justice Chepkwony.
The judge, however, dismissed the prayer to have sections of the Teachers Service Commission Act unconstitutional for restricting the qualifications and experience for the CEO position.
She said that there was a justifiable reason to have such requirements owing to the quality and management of the education workforce in the country.
The Judge was of the view that it would be intrusive to control internal recruitment processes.
“I have deliberately declined to grant an order of a permanent or mandatory character requiring the first respondent to appoint any particular category of candidate, or to adopt any qualification regime other than that already prescribed by section 16(2), lest this Court trespass upon the constitutionally allocated domain of the Commission's own appointing authority,” she continued.
The case was filed by Simon Kairu against TSC, the National Assembly, Attorney General and the Education Cabinet Secretary.
He argued that it was unfair for the commission to restrict the top post to degree holders.
He also claimed that the deadline applicants were required to meet was almost impossible, as it required applicants, among other things, to seek clearance from among others the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC).
Kairu also lamented that the advertisement did not disclose the remuneration, hence making it impossible for the applicants to know what is attached to the office.
In response, TSC argued that the court had no power to entertain the case as it revolved around employment.
It asserted that the case amounted to an abuse of court process as there were four other cases filed before the Employment and Labour Relations Court (ELRC).
It also denied giving applicants 14 days to apply. According to the commission, Kairu did not disclose how he was to suffer as he was not an applicant.
The latest court order is the second major legal setback to efforts to replace former TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia, who left office after completing her second and final five-year term on June 30, 2025.
Macharia took over from Gabriel Lengoiboni after a competitive recruitment process in 2015 that attracted 69 applicants, four of whom were shortlisted. She served her first five-year term from July 2015 to June 2020 before being appointed for a second and final term running to June 30, 2025.
The Commission began the search for her successor on May 6, 2025, advertising the position while Macharia was still in office. The advertisement gave prospective applicants until May 27 to submit their applications.
That process was immediately plunged into a legal battle. In May 2025, Thomas Mosomi Oyugi challenged the recruitment, questioning among other issues the requirement that the CEO must hold a degree in education and the length of the application period. The Employment and Labour Relations Court in Mombasa temporarily halted the exercise.
In January this year, however, Justice Ochara Kebira dismissed the challenge and allowed TSC to proceed with the recruitment. The ruling effectively lifted the legal obstacle that had stalled the process.
But the latest High Court ruling has once again put the search for a substantive CEO in doubt, this time over the period allowed for applications. The court has ordered the Commission to re-advertise the position afresh, meaning the recruitment exercise cannot simply proceed from where the earlier process stopped.
The prolonged recruitment has left the Commission under acting leadership. Macharia proceeded on terminal leave before formally leaving office, and TSC appointed Evaleen J. Mitei to act as Commission Secretary/CEO pending the appointment of her successor. Mitei was subsequently retained in the acting position and has continued to appear in that capacity in official TSC and parliamentary engagements in 2026.
The leadership transition has therefore stretched well beyond the expiry of Macharia’s term, with Mitei having served as acting CEO since the former CEO’s departure in June 2025.
