Elimu Bora Working Group expresses deep concern over mounting revelations regarding the distribution of Teachers Service Commission (TSC) employment letters through political offices and State House, raising questions about transparency and accountability in Kenya’s education sector.
Recent disclosures by Moses Wetang’ula, Speaker of the National Assembly, reveal that certain Members of Parliament were summoned to State House and handed batches of TSC employment letters to distribute among their constituents. The Speaker’s revelation, including suggestions that some job opportunities were sold to desperate applicants for as much as Sh400,000, has cast a shadow over the independence and integrity of teacher recruitment in Kenya.
These revelations cannot simply be dismissed. They demand a transparent, independent and comprehensive investigation by competent bodies.
TSC, established under Article 237 of the Constitution, is an independent body tasked with overseeing the recruitment and employment of teachers across Kenya.
The Constitution expressly gives TSC the responsibility for registering trained teachers, recruiting and employing teachers, assigning teachers to public schools, promoting and transferring teachers, and exercising disciplinary control. The Teachers Service Commission Act, 2012, further provides the statutory framework through which TSC performs these functions.
TSC has a recruitment systems that allocate opportunities based on teachers’ qualifications, graduation timelines, existing vacancies, and the staffing needs of individual schools and regions. Such systems are crucial because some communities, especially those in marginalised and hardship areas, continue to experience severe teacher shortages.
The controversy, however, is not new. During the tenure of former Education Cabinet Secretary Ezekiel Machogu, public concern flared when he reportedly handed a TSC employment letter to a beneficiary at a funeral.
Why should employment letters for teachers be distributed at funerals, political gatherings, or through politicians, when Kenya’s Constitution has established an independent commission specifically to oversee teacher recruitment?
Elimu Bora insists that the TSC's constitutional mandate must be respected to safeguard the integrity of the teaching profession. Permitting politicians to determine recipients of employment letters undermines the credibility of the entire system.
Ideally, a teacher should not have to know an MP, attend a political event, or pay money to access an opportunity that should be available through a transparent, merit-based recruitment process.
Demands
In light of these revelations, Elimu Bora is demanding that an independent forensic audit of all TSC recruitments and appointments made over the past four years be commissioned. Only a transparent and thorough investigation can restore public confidence in the system and ensure that Kenya’s teachers are selected on merit, not on political patronage.
Among the key questions the audit must address are the following:
- The total number of teachers recruited and employed by TSC over the period in question.
- The names of those recruited (with all personal information protected as required by law), their qualifications and graduation years, and the counties, constituencies and schools to which they were posted.
- The number of vacancies declared across the country, the criteria used to select successful candidates, and whether the distribution of opportunities matched actual teacher shortages and staffing needs.
Elimu Bora is also demanding that investigators establish who, how, and to what extent political offices or actors outside the lawful TSC recruitment structure played a role in identifying beneficiaries, how money was paid in exchange for employment, and who received it.
