180-Day Maternity Leave Push: What It Actually Means for TSC Teachers.
A proposal to double Kenya’s statutory maternity leave from three months to six is back in the news, and TSC teachers have noticed. The short version: nothing changes for teachers today.
TSC teachers still get 120 days of maternity leave and 21 days of paternity leave, plus a two-hour daily breastfeeding allowance for two months after returning to work. But the proposal is worth understanding, because of what it could mean once TSC and teachers’ unions sit down for their next round of bargaining.
Here’s what has actually been proposed, how it differs from how it’s being described in some reports, and where TSC teachers currently stand.
What Has Actually Been Proposed — And What Hasn’t
Nominated MP Dorothy Muthoni has asked the National Assembly’s Committee on Labour to review and harmonise maternity leave entitlements for female employees in Kenya, arguing that the current three-month allowance should be doubled to six months.
This is an important distinction that several reports have blurred: Muthoni’s move is a request for a statement to the Labour Committee, not a tabled bill. She wants the committee to examine Section 29 of the Employment Act, 2007, which currently entitles female employees to three months of fully paid maternity leave, and to consider raising that threshold.
Her request cites Article 41 of the Constitution (the right to fair labour practices) and Article 53 (the best interests of the child), and notes that Kenya’s current provision falls short of the International Labour Organisation’s Maternity Protection Convention, 2000 (No. 183), which recommends a minimum of 14 weeks.
A second point worth correcting: the proposal is not limited to civil servants. Section 29 of the Employment Act applies to female employees generally, across the public and private sectors. Coverage describing this purely as a “civil servants’ bill” narrows what is, at this stage, a broader push to revisit the national statutory minimum — one that would, if it ever became law, apply well beyond government offices.
For now, the matter sits with the Labour Committee, which has been asked to review the framework and report back. It has not yet been debated as legislation, and no timeline for a decision has been announced.
How TSC Teachers’ Leave Compares Right Now
This is where the nuance matters. Kenya’s Employment Act sets the statutory floor at 90 days. Civil servants generally follow this same 90-day standard. TSC teachers, however, already sit above that floor.
| Category | Maternity leave (current) | Paternity leave (current) |
|---|---|---|
| Statutory minimum (Employment Act, all sectors) | 90 days | 14 days |
| Civil servants | 90 days | 14 days |
| TSC teachers | 120 days | 21 days |
| Muthoni’s proposed statutory minimum | 180 days | Not yet specified in detail, though the request references “corresponding changes to paternity leave” |
So teachers are not behind civil servants today — they are 30 days ahead. The concern raised in teacher circles is what happens if the statutory floor rises to 180 days: teachers’ current 120-day entitlement, secured through hard-won negotiation, would suddenly sit 60 days below the new general minimum. That would be an unusual position for a profession that has, for years, had one of the more generous maternity packages in Kenya’s public service.
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It’s worth being precise about the mechanics here, though. Kenya’s Constitution gives the TSC its own mandate to manage teachers’ terms of service, largely through collective bargaining rather than direct application of general labour legislation to every specific benefit.
A change to the Employment Act’s statutory minimum would not automatically rewrite the TSC-unions CBA. It would, however, hand teachers’ unions a fresh, concrete reference point to raise at the bargaining table — and Kenyan public-sector unions have a long track record of using exactly this kind of comparative benchmarking during negotiations.
Where the Current 120 Days Came From
TSC teachers’ current maternity entitlement isn’t recent. It was negotiated during the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement cycle, when maternity leave rose from 90 to 120 days. The same CBA cycle lifted paternity leave from 14 to 21 days, fully paid, available once a year within the duration of the mother’s maternity leave.
Those changes were, at the time, presented by teachers’ unions as a significant welfare win — one that placed TSC teachers ahead of the general civil service on this specific benefit. The current 2025–2029 CBA, signed in 2025, did not extend the number of maternity leave days further. Instead, negotiators addressed a different, related gap: what happens to nursing mothers in the weeks immediately after they return to the classroom.
Circular No. 13/2025: The Two-Hour Breastfeeding Allowance
Rather than adding more maternity days in the latest CBA cycle, TSC introduced a separate mechanism to support lactating teachers after they resume duty. This came through Circular Ref. TSC/ADM/192A/VOL.X/57, dated 18 August 2025, signed by Acting Commission Secretary/CEO Evaleen Mitei and addressed to all teachers.
The circular confirms that the Code of Regulations for Teachers (2015), read together with the 2025–2029 CBA, already provides for maternity, paternity and pre-adoptive leave, and that a teacher can only be on one type of leave at a time. What it adds is new: a two-hour daily permission, for two months, for teachers who are breastfeeding after returning from maternity leave.
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The five operational rules teachers and head teachers need to know:
- It starts immediately. The two-hour daily allowance applies from the day the teacher resumes duty after maternity leave — there’s no separate application or waiting period to activate it.
- Timing is flexible. The specific two hours can be agreed with the Head of Institution, so schools can schedule it in a way that causes the least disruption to lessons.
- A written request is required. Teachers must apply in writing and get approval from their Head of Institution before using the allowance.
- Head teachers request through the Sub-County Director. If the person needing the allowance is herself the Head of Institution, the request goes to the Sub-County Director of Education instead, since there’s no on-site supervisor to approve it.
- It’s time-bound. The allowance runs for exactly two months from the resumption date. After that, teachers return to their normal schedule.
For a teacher returning to a full timetable while still nursing an infant, this closes a real gap that the raw leave-days figure doesn’t capture — the transition period, not just the leave itself.
Would a 180-Day Statutory Minimum Automatically Change TSC’s Terms?
No — and this is worth stating plainly, because it’s easy to assume otherwise. TSC operates under its own constitutional and statutory mandate, and teachers’ specific leave entitlements are set through collective bargaining, not by direct read-across from general labour law changes. Even if the Employment Act’s statutory floor eventually moved to 180 days, TSC’s 120-day figure would only change through:
- A future CBA negotiation between TSC and teachers’ unions (KNUT and KUPPET), or
- A TSC policy decision or circular specifically addressing the gap, similar to how Circular 13/2025 addressed the breastfeeding transition without touching the headline leave-day figure.
What a higher statutory minimum would do is strengthen the unions’ negotiating position the next time maternity and paternity terms are on the table — much as the 2021–2025 gains did at the time.
What Happens Next
The Labour Committee’s review is still underway, with no confirmed timeline for its findings or for any resulting legislation. Any change to the Employment Act would still need to go through parliamentary debate, committee scrutiny and public participation before it could take effect — a process that typically takes months, and sometimes longer, given the cost implications for employers across the public and private sectors.
For TSC teachers, the practical position as of September 2026 is unchanged:
- Maternity leave: 120 days, fully paid
- Paternity leave: 21 days, fully paid, once a year, within the mother’s maternity leave period
- Post-return breastfeeding allowance: two hours daily for two months, under Circular 13/2025
Nothing here requires teachers to do anything differently right now. The value of following this story is knowing what’s actually on the table — and not mistaking a committee review for a change in the law.
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Frequently Asked Questions
Has the 180-day maternity leave proposal become law? No. It is currently a request for a statement before the National Assembly’s Labour Committee, which has been asked to review and report on the matter. It has not been debated as a bill, and there is no confirmed date for that to happen.
Does this only affect civil servants? Not specifically. The request concerns Section 29 of the Employment Act, which sets the statutory maternity leave minimum for female employees generally. Civil servants currently follow this 90-day statutory floor, which is why coverage often frames the story around them, but any eventual change would apply more broadly.
How many maternity leave days do TSC teachers get today? 120 days, unchanged since the 2021–2025 CBA. This is 30 days more than the current statutory minimum of 90 days.
Does the two-hour breastfeeding allowance under Circular 13/2025 apply to all female teachers? It applies to lactating teachers who have just returned to duty after maternity leave, for a period of two months from their resumption date, subject to written approval from the Head of Institution (or the Sub-County Director of Education if the applicant is the head teacher).
Would TSC teachers automatically get 180 days if the law changes? No. TSC sets teachers’ specific leave terms through its own mandate and through collective bargaining with unions. A change to the general statutory minimum would not automatically rewrite the TSC-unions CBA, but it would likely become a reference point in the next negotiation cycle.
180-Day Maternity Leave Push: What It Actually Means for TSC Teachers.
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