MPs have no business dishing out TSC letters
What you need to know:
- It is not just unfair and illegal, but it is also quite unfortunate that some teachers are employed without being interviewed by competent people employed by the TSC.
Employment in the public sector has always been one of the most corrupt processes through which some incompetent but well-connected people get hired at the expense of their more qualified compatriots.
It gets quite messy when outsiders meddle in the recruitment to key or sensitive areas.
The public fury over the racket through which some politicians have been given teachers’ employment letters to distribute to their relatives and supporters is understandable.
This is a delicate area as only the very best should be recruited and put in charge of learners in primary and secondary schools.
Instead of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) diligently carrying out the recruitment, which is its key mandate, the letters have been dished out to politicians.
The uproar follows a revelation by Murang’a County Woman Representative Betty Njeri Maina that MPs aligned to the government were recently given the TSC employment letters to hand out to their constituents.
This is a blatant violation of the Constitution. According to Article 237 of the Constitution, the TSC is mandated to recruit and employ only registered teachers, and assign them to public schools and other institutions.
The teachers’ unions are quite right that giving the letters to politicians denies some deserving Kenyans a chance to be employed.
Indeed, many qualified teachers are unemployed and if they have no access to the MPs dishing out the letters, they lose out.
Some 11 MPs from Kiambu County are said to have received 220 letters. This is nothing new. A former top Education official once issued a TSC employment letter at a public event.
The TSC owes Kenyans an explanation as to why it has allowed this to continue. It must explain how the letters end up in the politicians’ hands.
The TSC is a professional institution whose operations must never be politicised.
It is not just unfair and illegal, but it is also quite unfortunate that some teachers are employed without being interviewed by competent people employed by the TSC.