20,000 Junior School Jobs: Where the Posts Are, and Why Interns Are Anxious
Kakamega, Kitui, Bungoma and Nakuru lead the county allocations as the Teachers Service Commission prepares for November interviews
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) released the county and sub-county distribution of the 20,000 junior school teaching posts it advertised on permanent and pensionable (P&P) terms.
The list covers all 47 counties and runs down to individual sub-counties, showing where the jobs are and how competitive each area is likely to be.
Applications closed on 31st August. According to TSC Chairperson Jamleck Muturi, recruitment interviews and document verification will take place in November.
He added that an additional teacher recruitment and replacement exercise will run during the same period, and he urged unemployed teachers to prepare.
For thousands of junior school intern teachers, however, the main story is not the national total. It is the question of whether the process will move fast enough, and cheaply enough, to deliver a permanent job by January 2027.
The posts are largely meant for the interns
The 20,000 vacancies are largely earmarked for confirming the veteran junior school intern teachers hired in January 2025.
These teachers will complete their mandatory two-year internship on 31st December 2026, and the exercise is expected to transition them to P&P terms from January 2027.
In practical terms, the November interviews are the bridge between two years of internship and a permanent career in the teaching service.
Interns have taught the cohorts of Junior School learners, helping to staff the grades that the Competency Based Curriculum added to many primary schools.
Their confirmation is therefore important to schools as well as to the teachers themselves, because losing experienced staff at the end of their internships would leave classrooms short.
The additional recruitment and replacement exercise Muturi mentioned is separate. It is aimed at filling gaps left by teachers who have exited the service and at bringing in more teachers who have yet to be employed.
That is why he asked unemployed teachers to get ready: the November window is expected to be busy.
The national picture: an uneven spread
The 47 county allocations add up to exactly 20,000, an average of about 425 posts per county. Few counties sit near that average, though.
The spread runs from 84 posts in Isiolo to 994 in Kakamega, a gap of more than eleven to one.
TSC has not set out a public formula for the distribution in the document, but the pattern points to staffing gaps and the number of junior school learners in each county.
Populous, high-enrolment counties received the largest allocations, while sparsely populated and arid counties received the smallest.
The top ten counties
| Rank | County | Vacancies |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Kakamega | 994 |
| 2 | Kitui | 959 |
| 3 | Bungoma | 800 |
| 3 | Nakuru | 800 |
| 5 | Machakos | 693 |
| 6 | Makueni | 691 |
| 7 | Meru | 678 |
| 8 | Kisii | 668 |
| 9 | Homa Bay | 642 |
| 10 | Narok | 617 |
Kakamega tops the list with 994 posts, and Kitui follows with 959. Bungoma and Nakuru tie at 800 each. Together, the ten largest counties hold about 7,540 posts, or roughly 38 percent of the national total.
The next group also sits above the national average: Migori (575), Nandi (573), Nairobi (566), Kilifi (565), Kiambu (562), Siaya (532), Kisumu (529), Bomet (526) and Murang’a (507). Kericho follows with 486.
The smallest allocations
At the other end, nine counties have fewer than 160 posts each: Isiolo (84), Lamu (90), Samburu (103), Garissa (117), Tana River (124), Marsabit (141), Wajir (152), Mombasa (153) and Mandera (158).
Taken together, the arid and semi-arid counties of Garissa, Mandera, Wajir, Marsabit, Isiolo, Turkana, Samburu, Tana River and Lamu account for about 1,190 posts, roughly 6 percent of the total.
Turkana, at 223, is the largest of them. Mombasa, with 153 posts, is also modest despite its urban population.
A regional breakdown
Grouping the counties by the former provinces gives a clearer sense of where the weight lies. The figures below are summed from the published county allocations.
| Region | Approximate posts | Share of total |
|---|---|---|
| Rift Valley | 5,803 | 29% |
| Eastern | 3,891 | 19.5% |
| Nyanza | 3,298 | 16.5% |
| Western | 2,580 | 13% |
| Central | 1,967 | 10% |
| Coast | 1,468 | 7% |
| Nairobi | 566 | 3% |
| North Eastern | 427 | 2% |
Rift Valley is the largest block, with Nakuru (800), Narok (617), Nandi (573), Bomet (526) and Kericho (486) leading, followed by Uasin Gishu (445), West Pokot (405) and Baringo (402). Even the region’s smaller counties, such as Samburu (103) and Turkana (223), sit under the same regional umbrella.
Eastern is driven by the lower-eastern trio of Kitui, Machakos and Makueni, which alone hold about 2,340 posts. Meru adds 678, with Tharaka Nithi (327), Embu (318), Marsabit (141) and Isiolo (84) making up the rest.
Nyanza is led by Kisii (668) and Homa Bay (642), with Migori (575), Siaya (532), Kisumu (529) and Nyamira (352) behind.
Western is concentrated in Kakamega (994) and Bungoma (800), with Busia (443) and Vihiga (343).
Central is fairly even. Kiambu (562), Murang’a (507), Nyeri (359), Nyandarua (321) and Kirinyaga (218) all have mid-sized allocations.
Coast is led by Kilifi (565) and Kwale (350), followed by Taita Taveta (186), Mombasa (153), Tana River (124) and Lamu (90).
Nairobi has 566 posts spread across its 18 sub-counties, about 31 per sub-county on average.
North Eastern, meaning Garissa, Mandera and Wajir, holds the smallest regional share, with 117, 158 and 152 posts respectively.
Where the competition will be fiercest
Because TSC has allocated posts down to sub-county level, the real contest is local. A teacher interviewing for a post in a sub-county with 136 vacancies faces very different odds from one in a sub-county with three.
The biggest sub-county allocations
The largest single allocations in the country are:
- Chepalungu (Bomet): 136
- Mwala (Machakos): 129
- Nandi North: 125
- Bungoma South: 124
- Rachuonyo North (Homa Bay): 119
- Ndhiwa (Homa Bay): 114
- Siaya: 113
- Yatta (Machakos): 109
- Bureti (Kericho): 108
- Nandi South: 108
- Kakamega East: 107
- Muhoroni (Kisumu): 105
- Ganze (Kilifi): 104
- Soy (Uasin Gishu): 102
Chesumei (Nandi), Njoro (Nakuru) and Konoin (Bomet) follow with 101 each, along with Mbita (Homa Bay) at 71 and Naivasha (Nakuru) at 95 further down the list.
Several counties show a similar pattern, with one or two sub-counties absorbing a large share of the county total. In Nandi, for instance, four of the six sub-counties exceed 100 posts or come close to it.
The smallest allocations
Some sub-counties have only a handful of slots. Illeret in Marsabit has just 2. Lokiriama in Turkana, Bothai and Lagdera in Garissa, and Khorofharar in Wajir have 3 each.
Benane, Fafi and Hulugho in Garissa, and Korondille in Wajir, have 4. In the northern and north-eastern counties, many sub-counties are in single digits.
These small numbers reflect the sparse populations and low enrolments of those areas, but they also mean that each post is closely contested relative to the number of applicants in the area.
Large counties, many sub-counties
County totals can hide how thinly posts are spread. Kitui has 19 sub-counties sharing 959 posts, an average of about 50 each, with allocations ranging from 19 in Thagicu to 97 in Mutomo.
Kakamega divides 994 posts across 14 sub-counties. Garissa has 13 sub-counties sharing 117 posts, an average of just 9.
A teacher considering where to apply, or interns checking where they have been placed, should look at the sub-county figure rather than the county headline.
Interns frustrated by the timing
While the distribution table answers the question of where, the question many interns are asking is when.
Junior school teachers say they had expected the recruitment exercise to happen much earlier, ideally before schools close this week, so that interviews would be done while they were still at their work stations.
The calendar has not worked out that way. Applications closed on 31st August, and interviews and document verification have now been set for November.
For interns whose internship ends on 31st December, that leaves a narrow window between interview and the start of P&P terms in January.
The frustration is partly about certainty. Interns are approaching the end of a two-year contract with no confirmed next step, and a December without a clear outcome is stressful, particularly for those supporting families.
The travel cost problem
The second concern is money. Most junior school intern teachers will travel home when schools close. Many are posted far from their home areas, so the journey home is long and costly.
Interns on internship terms, who earn less than permanent teachers, feel that cost sharply.
If interview invitations arrive late, a teacher who has just travelled home might receive a summons to an interview venue, perhaps in a different county, and have to travel again, sometimes in the festive travel season when fares tend to rise.
A teacher who has already settled at home may also have to return to the work station area just to be verified.
For this reason, interns have asked for early notification. TSC has said applicants will be invited for interviews one week earlier.
This is useful but still short notice for a teacher planning a journey across several counties. An early and clear invitation, ideally before schools close, would let interns decide whether to travel home at all, or to plan one trip that serves both purposes. It would cut costs for thousands of teachers at a stroke.
What applicants should do now
With November approaching, teachers can use the waiting period productively.
Confirm your details. Check that the phone number and email linked to your TSC account are correct and active. Invitations are likely to be sent through those channels, and a missed message could mean a missed interview.
Gather your documents. Document verification is part of the exercise, so assemble original academic and professional certificates, your TSC registration certificate, your national identity card, contract renewal document and any other documents the commission requires. Make copies and keep them together.
Study the sub-county list. Look at the figure for the sub-county where you applied. If you are an intern, check your station against the distribution so you know roughly how many posts are available locally.
Plan your travel. Because most interns will leave stations when schools close, decide in advance where you will be in early November and how quickly you could reach an interview venue. Keep some money aside for a possible journey.
Prepare for the interview. Review your teaching subjects and the junior school curriculum, and be ready to discuss your classroom experience from the past two years. Interns have an advantage here, since their experience is recent and directly relevant.
Watch official channels. Rely on the TSC website and official communication for announcements, and treat unofficial social media messages about dates or payments with caution.
Unemployed teachers should prepare too. Muturi said an additional recruitment and replacement exercise will be done during the same period. Teachers who are not interns should watch for the advert and be ready to apply quickly while those who applied for the internship slots should attend interviews for any vacancy that may arise.
Looking ahead
The distribution list answers an important question: the 20,000 posts are real, they are spread across every county, and they are concentrated in the populous counties of western Kenya, the lower-eastern region and the Rift Valley. It also shows how different the competition is from one sub-county to another.
What remains is the process. If TSC keeps to its November schedule and sends invitations early, the exercise can run smoothly and give interns the time they need to prepare. If notices come late, the costs fall on teachers who can least afford them.
For the thousands of interns who have spent two years in classrooms on temporary terms, the next few weeks will shape the start of 2027. The posts are there.
The question is whether the system moves quickly enough, and clearly enough, to get each intern into the one with their name on it.