Supreme Court Orders Pay Rise For Kenyan Teachers

Kenya National Union of Teachers Demonstrating

The Supreme court has ordered TSC to pay teachers' salary increase with immediate effect.The teachers' employer had appealed a ruling to pay the 50-60 per cent salary increase.

Speaking outside the Supreme court, Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion condemned the Teachers Service Commission for paying salaries early, to evade the directive.

Sossion said TSC did an "abnormal thing" not to include the pay rise in the teachers' August salaries.

"We wonder where miracles come from. TSC should recall with immediate effect the payroll and pay teachers the money. We shall give more details on Tuesday," he said.

"We want the teachers to remain united. The war has just began now that we have been given a clean bill, we cannot be divided forever."

There was heavy security outside the court as teachers jammed the courthouse ahead of the ruling on Monday.

The TSC moved to the highest court after the Court of Appeal on July 23 ordered the commission to pay the increment to the 288,000 teachers.

Appellate judges Mohammed Warsame, Sankale Kantai and Jamila Mohamed said if the commission failed to pay the new salaries by end of August, the appeal will automatically stand dismissed.

The teachers, through their unions, said the Supreme Court had no jurisdiction to hear a pay dispute between them and their employer.The teachers said the suit was still pending at the Court of Appeal and should be concluded first.

They had threatened to go on strike in September if the government does not pay the increase amounting to about Sh12.3 billion.

Both the Education CS Jacob Kaimenyi and Treasury CS Henry Rotich have maintained the government has not budgeted the salary increase.