Treasury Cabinet Secretary (CS) John Mbadi Sunday made a u-turn on an earlier declaration that there is no money to employ Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers on permanent and pensionable terms.
Mbadi, after stating in an interview last Thursday that the exchequer has no money to employ the 20,000 teachers, has now retracted his statement, claiming he was ill-informed on the budgetary allocation status for the JSS teachers.
“Those who are saying there is money in the budget for JSS teachers are right. I am wrong and there is nothing with saying I am wrong,” he said.
The CS argued that he was alluding to the existing cash crunch in the exchequer that would deny the teachers salaries for July to December.
He asserted that the conversion to permanent terms, set to be effected on January 2025, has already been budgeted for.
“What I should have made clear is that there is money in the budget for conversion of JSS teachers to permanent and pensionable from January 2025 and there is Sh22 billion available,” he noted.
“I actually implied that there would be no money to pay them from July to December but I should have been very clear that there is money in the budget from January.”
Mbadi further stated that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has also been apprised of the changes.
The National Treasury also issued a statement on the issue.
“The Cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury and Economic Planning Hon John Mbadi assures Kenyans that funds have been allocated by the government to employ Junior Secondary School teachers on permanent and pensionable terms starting Jan 2025.”
“The CS also refuted circulating claims suggesting otherwise and apologized for any anxiety caused,” a post on X said.
This comes after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) who announced a nationwide strike set for Monday, August 26, 2024.
The unions attributed the decision to TSC’s failure to address critical grievances raised during a meeting held on July 16, 2024, to resolve the planned industrial action and issues affecting the welfare of teachers.
KNUT called off plans to go strike from August 26.
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