Intern teachers miss in TSC July salary increment

Teachers employed on internship terms in February this year, will not see salary changes in their July 2023 payslips.

This is because the teachers employment is on contract terms and therefore do not qualify to get a payrise.

According to Teachers Service Commission (TSC), intern teachers in primary school earn a stipend of 15,000/- monthly while those in secondary including junior secondary school get 20,000/-.

Tuesday this week the Commission started payment of July salaries for teachers and secretariat staff.

TSC released third party deductions which include loans, union dues and insurance premiums.

The release of July payroll indicates that teachers will get their salaries latest by Saturday this week.

The latest payroll shows that primary school teachers recruited and posted to schools in May this year have been paid.

Details reveal that the salaries have got some changes on allowances for a number of teachers with others having their arrears getting paid.

Teachers are also to get a salary increment of 7% of their basic salaries in this July pay.

The National Treasury already released a total of sh. 9.1 billion to TSC to be used to implement the July payrise plan for over 350,000 teachers and secretariat staff on pnp payroll.

Announcing the salary increment of between 7% to 10% for teachers and civil servants, President William Ruto said this is to cushion public servants from the harsh economic times.

“I know there is a proposal by SRC for the increase of salaries of different cadres of both civil servants and other public servants. So our teachers, policemen, military space, and those working in government, we have agreed that from tomorrow your salaries will be adjusted between 7 and 10 percent,” Ruto said during the launch of the new e-citizen platform at KICC.

Though initially there were plans to deduct 1.5% of gross pay towards the housing fund this was halted by the court.

High Court judge Mugure Thande declined to set aside orders suspending the Finance Act 2023.

The judge ruled that the petitioners (Busia senator Okiya Omtatah and others) have proved that they have a case adding that if the orders were to be lifted the public stands to suffer.

Chief Justice Martha Koome has empanelled a three-judge bench to hear cases filed to challenge the Finance Act, 2023.

Justice Koome Tuesday, July 18 appointed High Court Judges David Majanja, Christine Meoli, and Lawrence Mugambi to hear the 12 cases filed against the tax law.

This comes as a lawyer Shadrack Sharu, filed a separate case challenging the Appropriation Act, of 2023.

Sharu questions Kenya’s debt, arguing that the amount indicated by the Kenya Kwanza could not be the real figure of the money owed to both internal and foreign creditors.

He has sued the Controller of Budget, the National Treasury, the Attorney General, Treasury Cabinet Secretary Njuguna Ndung’u and the National Assembly.

He argues that the government ought to have told Kenyans how much they need to shoulder and have the same paid this year.

According to Sharu, the loans taken by the government are not accounted for and end up in government officials’ pockets.

“The petitioners challenge the constitutionality of Appropriation Act 2023 to the extent that it does not clearly state the country’s debt balance and appropriate funds for its settlement within the financial year,” argues Sharu.

He has also cited businessman Jimmy Wanjigi as an interested party. According to him, the debt is said to be around Sh9.7 trillion. This, he says, is around 70 per cent of Kenya’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP).