The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is set to push for an increase in teachers' salaries and allowances in the next four years.
In a public event on Sunday, May 18, KNUT Deputy Secretary General Hebson Otieno stated that the Union will propose a 60 per cent salary increment and a 30 per cent allowance increase in their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with the government.
According to Hebson, the move will be fundamental in motivating teachers who are already feeling the pinch from frequent tax deductions.
"The new CBA of 2025-2029 will be in parliament soon, and we want members of parliament to help us because we want to push for a 60 per cent increase and an allowance of 30 per cent increase," Otieno said.
On the other hand, the Kajido Member of Parliament, Elijah Memusi, urged the national government to reconsider a proposal to scrap the hardship allowance for teachers in remote areas, stressing that the government should motivate them by adding this allowance.
"Hardship allowance is their right and it cannot be taken; what you can only do is to add to what they already have," he stated.
In recent weeks, the issue of some regions being deregistered as hardship allowance, as per the 2019 inter-agency technical committee report on hardship area reclassification, has sparked concerns among stakeholders, especially teachers and other civil servants in hardship areas.
The report seeks to remove 129 sub-counties from the list, meaning that teachers and other civil servants working in those areas would lose their hardship allowances.
Speaking on Sunday, May 11, in Laikipia, the Education Cabinet Secretary, Julius Ogamba, assured that the ministry would intervene to ensure that teachers continue receiving the allowance.
According to the CS, members of parliament should support his effort to ensure that if one ministry is considered a hardship area, all other civil servants in the area are also to receive hardship allowances.
"You are going to help us in Parliament. Let us harmonise and know that if it is a hardship area for one ministry, it is a hardship area for another ministry," Ogomba said.
"I will be coming to you guys to give us support in parliament so that we can do affirmative action," he added.
