Teachers Threaten Strike Over Ksh6 Billion Hardship Allowance Dispute.
Learning in schools across the country faces possible disruption as teachers issue a stern warning to the government over plans to slash hardship allowances. With the second term just beginning, educators are threatening a nationwide strike should the proposal proceed.
In Kajiado, local branches of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) have expressed strong opposition to the proposal. The KNUT Kajiado Branch Secretary General, Ely Korinko, stated that decisions made in Nairobi fail to reflect the realities on the ground. According to him, teachers in remote areas continue to face extreme conditions, and any attempt to remove their allowances would result in immediate industrial action.
“It seems these leaders make decisions in Nairobi without considering the hardships in other regions,” he said. “As KNUT, we are ordering that the hardship allowance remain, or else we will down tools here in Kajiado and extend the strike to the whole country.”
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi recently announced that the government would implement recommendations from an Inter-Agency Technical Committee report, which includes reclassifying hardship regions. Appearing before Parliament, he informed MPs that the new policy would result in a Ksh6 billion annual saving, cutting the current expenditure from Ksh25 billion to Ksh19 billion.
“I wish to inform the House that the implementation of the Inter-Agency Technical Committee report will reduce the financial implication for payment of hardship allowances from Ksh25 billion to Ksh19 billion per annum, thereby making a Ksh6 billion saving by the government,” he said.
Educators have responded by emphasizing the daily struggles they face in hardship zones like Kajiado. These challenges include transport issues, wild animal threats, and limited access to clean water. According to them, the hardship allowance has been instrumental in motivating teachers to remain in such areas and deliver quality education.
“Hardship allowance has been very sentimental in ensuring we offer quality education to students,” said Zadock Kisienya, Secretary-General of the KUPPET Kajiado branch. “We face many challenges, including communication, a bad working environment, and a lack of electricity, and these funds have helped solve them; that’s why we are ordering that it remain.”
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Demand for Alternative Compensation
Teachers insist that if the government proceeds with scrapping the allowance, an alternative such as accommodation support—similar to what is provided for educators in Nairobi—must be introduced. They argue that eliminating the allowance without a substitute would worsen the conditions for teachers already stationed in difficult environments.
Hardship allowances, first introduced in 1969, were meant to support government officers posted to remote areas lacking essentials such as healthcare, water, transportation, and communication services. Teachers have criticized the current proposal as hasty and unilateral, claiming that no proper consultation or public participation occurred before the decision was made. They warned that pushing forward with the changes could trigger widespread unrest among educators.
Teachers Threaten Strike Over Ksh6 Billion Hardship Allowance Dispute
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