Thousands of secondary school teachers across the country are expressing shock and anger after discovering they received as little as Sh36 in additional pay following what they believed would be a meaningful salary increment.

In what many teachers describe as adding insult to injury, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) reportedly deducted nearly 70 percent of the modest pay rise disbursed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

The revelation has triggered widespread outrage among teachers, with branch-level union officials challenging both KUPPET’s national leadership and the TSC after discovering the deductions in their July pay slips.

Both KUPPET and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) recently signed the 2025-2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) with TSC, which promised to improve teachers’ salaries. However, when July pay slips were released, many teachers were left stunned by the minimal increments they received—which were further reduced by significant KUPPET deductions allegedly to recover expenses incurred during teachers’ strikes.

Pay slips revealed the following increments by job group: deputy principals (D1): Sh36 increment; senior teachers (C5): Sh72; C1: Sh996; C2: Sh600; C3: Sh289; C4: Sh143

According to sources in the TSC, the situation is even worse than it appears. C1 teachers were supposed to receive a salary raise of Sh1,666, but after a KUPPET deduction of Sh670.10, they ended up with only Sh996.

The situation is particularly troubling for D1 teachers (deputy principals), who were supposed to receive an increase of Sh776. After deductions of Sh640 for KUPPET and Sh224 for Pay As You Earn tax, those in this bracket ended up with a deficit of Sh88 instead of a raise.

TSC boss Eveleen Mitei and KUPPET secretary general Akelo Misori and his deputy Moses Nturima could not be reached for comment, as they neither answered phone calls nor responded to text messages.

Increases defended

Vihiga branch secretary Sabala Inyeni has written a strongly worded protest letter to the TSC and the union, stating: “After the much-hyped CBA 2025-2029, our members received with great shock this illegal deduction in the form of a loan to the KUPPET national office. The loan deduction, coded as KUPPET-union Swal and expected to run for six months according to our estimates, has left many of our members with negative salary increases for July.”

In his July 30, 2025 letter, Inyeni demands that Misori explain in detail how, when, and where the deductions were approved, and which union organ sanctioned them. He also wants an explanation of measures being put in place to prevent future unauthorised deductions and demands immediate refunds of the deducted money with clear timelines.

As the 2026 KUPPET elections approach, Inyeni warns, “we are afraid that this move is aimed at demonizing branch officials for political gains”.

He continues: “We expect a response from your office within 14 days, [failing] which we shall ask our members to demand their rights in the best manner possible, in line with our union constitution and labour laws.”

Migori KUPPET branch executive secretary Orwa Jasolo echoed similar concerns, calling the small increase and unexplained union dues “a slap in the face of teachers”.

“Our membership has expressed disbelief following the release of July pay slips reflecting shockingly low salary increments, despite the recently signed 2025-2029 CBA having promised meaningful increments across all job groups,” Jasolo writes in his July 30 protest letter.

Jasolo highlighted concerns about “the introduction of a new unexplained deduction appearing as Swal-union dues that has been applied to all teachers’ pay slips”.

He demands that KUPPET’s national office provide the implementation matrix signed between the union and TSC showing how the three phases of the CBA would be implemented, as well as full information about the new SWAL deduction, its purpose, and whether it constitutes double deduction.

In early July, TSC signed a new CBA with Kenya’s three main teacher unions, securing what was marketed as improved pay, better working conditions, and new welfare provisions for more than 400,000 public school teachers.

The four-year agreement, covering 2025 to 2029, was signed between TSC and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), KUPPET, and the Kenya Union of Special Needs Education Teachers (KUSNET) after a year-long negotiation process.

Increases defended

According to the agreement, teachers in the highest job group (D5) were set to earn up to Sh167,415, representing a five percent salary increase, while the lowest-paid teachers were promised a 29.6 percent pay increase. The lowest-paid teachers, currently earning around Ksh23,000, were supposed to see their pay rise to about Sh29,000.

The raise was to be implemented gradually, with the agreement projecting an annual salary adjustment budget of Sh8.4 billion yearly, totalling Sh33 billion by the end of the five-year cycle ending June 30, 2029.

The promised salary ranges under the new CBA were: C1 teachers: Sh35,300 to Sh47,300; C2: Sh41,400 to Sh57,200; C3: Sh49,800 to Sh66,200; C4: Sh58,600 to Sh77,100; C5: Sh69,700 to Sh96,100; D1: Sh81,000 to Sh99,300; D2: Sh95,300 to Sh116,000; D3: Sh109,200 to Sh133,300; D4: Sh121,800 to Sh150,700s.