Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Headquarters in Upper Hill, Nairobi on June 21, 2025.
Hundreds of teachers promoted after years of waiting are stunned to learn they have been transferred far from their stations, some with just months to retirement.
They are among the 23,000 promoted by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in May, securing higher job grades and enhanced pay.
The teachers finally received their letters on Monday, only to realise they have been posted to regions they consider far-flung. That, however, could also lead to higher house or hardship allowances.
Many in Nairobi promoted to secondary school headship or deputy headship, for instance, have been sent to Kitui County.
“Accordingly, the commission has appointed you headteacher –T Scale 10 (Grade C5) – with effect from April 1, 2025. You are posted to Kitui County. The TSC County Director in Kitui will post you to a school,” reads a letter to a teacher dated August 26, 2025.
The Teachers Service Commission Acting CEO Eveleen Mitei.
One said he had been made a deputy principal after 12 years of stagnation, only to be posted to Kitui despite being unwell and caring for his ailing mother.
“I’m left with two years to retirement,” the teacher told the Daily Nation.
Another one who is disabled after surgery and battling hypertension asked who would care for her. The teacher, who has been in the service for 30 years, said it would be difficult to concentrate on her work.
“I’m 59 and left with just six months to retire. I have had a back problem for some time. Even walking is a challenge. I’m dejected even with the promotion,” she said.
For Mr David Kuria, who has taught in Nairobi for more than 30 years and has just two years to retirement after a decade of stagnation in one job group, the posting to a “far-flung” region has come as a shock.
“Those posted to Kitui are 156 – some 52 deputy headteachers, 43 heads, 35 deputy principals and 26 principals,” Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Nairobi Branch Secretary Macharia Mugwe said.
The script is playing out in other counties, with teachers interviewed saying the deployment could be delocalisation in another form.
“There is a case of a couple being separated by the deployment. The woman has been taken 300 kilometres to Tana River County and the husband 300 kilometres in the opposite direction to Taita Taveta. The couple has children in Grades Five and Six,” said Knut Mombasa Branch Secretary Dan Oloo.
Delocalisation by the TSC was stopped in 2022 following outcry from teachers and their unions, who said it was leading to family break-ups.
The policy required the TSC to transfer teachers to areas outside their place of origin.
In the recent TSC promotions, some 189,000 applications were made for 25,000 slots.
On releasing the final list of 25,252 in April the National Assembly and Senate rejected it as flawed, citing violations of the three-year service rule.
TSC admitted it relaxed the rule to fill certain roles but failed to convince MPs, leading to a stalemate.
