Nandi Senator Samson Cherargei has proposed an increase in hardship allowances for not only teachers but all civil servants.
Speaking while strongly opposing a government proposal to scrap hardship allowances for teachers, the senator stated that the move was necessary to cushion marginalised areas from experiencing undermined service delivery.
Appearing in the Senate, Cherargei called for the inclusion of all civil servants in the hardship allowance scheme and the expansion of designated hardship areas. He maintained that civil servants deserve fair and better compensation for working in difficult conditions.
The senator criticised a report by Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, which alleged that Kenya would save up to Ksh6 billion if the fund were scrapped.
“Mr Speaker, this move doesn’t make sense. What will attract teachers and other civil servants to work in hardship areas like Garissa, Banisa, Todonyang, or Namanga? Mr Speaker, in fact, we should give more hardship allowances to not only teachers, but all civil servants,” the senator questioned.
According to Cherargei, the hardship allowance is not a privilege but a necessity for motivating professionals to serve in remote and underserved regions.
“We must disagree with any intention to remove hardship allowances for teachers. There is a reason we have 44 hardship zones,” the senator stated.
He further argued that more regions should be added to the list of designated hardship areas. Cherargei proposed the inclusion of several areas in Nandi County, citing Terek, Chepterwa, Kapchorwa, Sopa, Songo, Chemelit, and Chemase as regions facing challenges similar to those already recognised.
The senator warned that scrapping hardship allowances would contradict existing legal frameworks, including Legal Notice No. 534 of 1998 and Legal Notice No. 196 of 2015, which officially declared certain areas as marginalised.
He also called for the alignment of hardship allowances with the Equalisation Fund, which has allocated Ksh16.8 billion to counties in the 2025 financial year.
“You can’t build schools and hospitals without ensuring teachers and health workers are willing to serve there. Infrastructure must be matched with human resource development,” Cherargei explained.
He urged the Finance and Budget Committee to re-examine the criteria used to designate hardship areas and ensure that all deserving regions are included.
He has also called on the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) to reject any attempt to scrap hardship allowances and to remain engaged in Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) negotiations.
