The recent promotions of 151,611 teachers yesterday became a hot potato in the National Assembly, with lawmakers terming the process a scam.

Members of the Education Committee said the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) not only favoured tutors hired recently but also awarded some counties more positions at the expense of others.

Teachers who scored 80 percent in interviews, lawmakers claimed, were promoted at the expense of those who scored 100 percent.

MPs said TSC chief executive Nancy Macharia and board chairman Jamleck Muturi had tabled concocted documents, demanding that the duo submit fresh documents detailing the formula and criteria used to promote the teachers.

Burning issue

Committee vice-chairperson and Kabondo Kasipul MP Eve Obara said: “Teacher promotion is a burning issue. In fact, there is a huge outcry about this issue.”

The list of promotions for the 2024/2025 financial year shows that Machakos County got the highest number of teachers promoted (690), followed by Meru (688), Makueni (668), Nakuru (665), Kakamega (657), Kiambu (649), Murang’a (648), Embu (646), Baringo (643), Kitui, (630), Nairobi (626), Kisii (625), and Kisumu 620.

The counties with the lowest share were Garissa (303 teachers), Wajir (341), Mandera (388), Lamu (398), Isiolo (429) and Mombasa (459).

Some 1,445 grade C2 teachers were promoted, with the other grades recording the following: C3: 4,971; C4: 8,508; C5: 5,425; D1: 2,519; D2: 799; D3: 1,410; D4: 128; and D5: 547.

The list also shows that almost all counties received a similar number of promotions.

For instance, most counties had between 31 and 32 teachers promoted in grade C2;  107 and 108 in C3; 133 and 280 in C4; two and three in grade D4; and one each in D5.

Promotion criteria

Speaking after TSC tabled its documents on the promotions, MPs Obara, Nabii Nabwera (Lugari), Joseph Makilap (Baringo North), Phylis Bartoo (Moiben), Christine Ombaka (Siaya woman rep), Jerusha Momanyi (Nyamira woman rep), Mary Emase (Teso South), Julius Taitum (Igembe North), Dick Maungu (Luanda) and Peter Orero (Kibra) rubbished the TSC claim that only teachers who had served between three and five years were promoted.

The lawmakers claimed they had evidence indicating that this claim was not true.

Said Nabwera: “Let the commission confirm to us whether they developed a criterion for promotion and whether it was shared to everyone including candidates. Why would a person who scored 100 percent not be promoted and a person who scored 80 percent be promoted?”

Maungu claimed that for the first time, the TSC had committed a serious miscarriage of justice on promotions that had sparked uproar among teachers.

He said: “We know that teachers who got promoted last year also got promoted this year, yet the commission indicated that those who were promoted [had] served between three to five years.”

Makilap demanded that the TSC table the raw data from the sub-county and county levels on how the promotions were made, how the teachers scored and the numbers awarded to each county.

Bartoo sought to know whether the TSC would get the same results if it repeated the entire process.

“With all the uproar [about] these promotions, I want to ask TSC that if given an opportunity to redo this, would it come back with the same results, because as it is, this is a scam,” he said.

Taitum termed the promotions an affront to teachers.

He said: “If you skim through this document, you will bear me witness that this is the most scandalous promotion that the commission ever had. What you have done negates the entire process of fairness and it is the high time that this document presented to us is discarded.”

Momanyi demanded that the list of promoted teachers and their scores be tabled before the committee, while Emase sought to know why the commission failed to consult MPs before releasing the promotions list.

Said Emase: “I want to know why the commission rushed to release the list before we had a sitting with them. It is clear that the longest-serving teachers were not promoted.”

Orero sought to know the criteria applied for the promotions.

In response, Macharia assured MPs she would forward the list of promotions to them, including their scores and stations.

She said: “We will provide this data because it is available. It is a bit heavy so we can share it on soft copies.”

Regional balance

The TSC, she said, received about Sh2 billion from the Treasury in the last three financial years for 151,611 promotions, adding that the agency requires an additional Sh35.49 billion to promote another 178, 881 teachers.

The agency, she added, upholds equity and regional balance by leveraging data to identify regional disparities in promotions.

It also employs affirmative action measures, such as shortlisting all eligible applicants in marginalised areas and allocating a fair share of promotion slots to these regions to enhance diversity.

The commission “has endeavoured to apply the principle of fair competition and merit, integrity, transparency and accountability, equity, fairness and impartiality, inclusiveness, nondiscrimination and gender equity in the selection and appointment process”, she said.