The Employment and Labour Relations Court Friday barred the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) from reposting teachers, affiliated with the Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association (KETHAWA), back to the locations they fled due to insecurity.
KETHAWA had filed a petition, under a certificate of urgency, seeking to have the court stop TSC from reassigning the said teachers to their previous dockets within the North Eastern region until their case was heard and determined.
The teachers, in an affidavit sworn by KETHAWA National Secretary Wangonya Wangenye, decried discrimination and violation of fundamental rights and freedoms by TSC which interdicted and subjected them to disciplinary action following their absconsion of duty.
TSC later issued reposting letters for them, requiring them to return to their previous counties in North Eastern by January 8.
When issuing the verdict on Friday, Justice Bernard Odongo Manani ordered TSC to refrain from re-assigning the teachers to their previous positions.
“It is hereby ruled that pending the hearing and determination of the application inter-parties , an order is hereby issued prohibiting the 1st respondent from re-posting the teachers who are members of the applicant herein to North Eastern Kenya where they fled from due to insecurity,” court documents read in part.
TSC was instructed to refrain from taking disciplinary measures against the KETHAWA teachers.
“It is hereby ruled that pending the hearing and determination of the application inter-parties, an order is hereby issued restraining the respondents from taking disciplinary action against the applicant ‘s members on the basis of the matters that form the basis of the grievance under inquiry,” added the court.
Wangonye lauded the court’s decision saying, “We thank the courts for upholding justice to the teachers who flew North Eastern region due to insecurity.”
The government has acknowledged non local teachers are targeted in attacks in the area.
Interior Cabinet Secretary Kithure Kindiki urged TSC to consider posting non-local teachers in the insecurity-stricken Northern counties for shorter durations and then reshuffling them.
The CS told a parliamentary education committee on August 2 that insecurity is affecting the mental health of the non-local teachers.
He told the committee that the locals contribute to issues of insecurity among the non-local teachers through incitement.
“There is a bit of incitement from the local communities against non-local teachers so some of the threats are coming from the local communities themselves and we must therefore look towards engaging the local communities to accept the reality that they don’t have enough teachers.”
He recommended that the teachers be pooled in one area temporarily to protect them from attacks by the al-Shabaab militia group.
According to the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), Mandera County alone currently needs more than 2,000 teachers to fill the gap in 300 public primary schools and another 550 public secondary schools.
The region lost 28 teachers in 2014 after a bus they were travelling in while heading to Nairobi for the December holidays was attacked.
In January 2020, the region faced another teacher crisis after TSC transferred tutors from other parts of the country, citing insecurity after three of them were killed by al-Shabaab during a night raid.
Tens of people have been killed in attacks by the terrorists operating in the area. Most of the victims are non locals.
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