The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) is demanding for expansion of the country’s 44 designated hardship zones, citing deteriorating living conditions driven by rising insecurity, human-wildlife conflict, and longstanding marginalization in areas yet to be officially recognised.
The union has declared opposition to the government’s plan targeting to reduce hardship zones under the Teachers Service Commission(TSC), terming it ill-informed.
Prime Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, in his address to Parliament recently, said the government plans to implement a 2019 report to rationalise hardship zones to save Sh6 billion annually across the public service by reducing payments from Sh25 billion to Sh19 billion.
“Instead of reducing the number of hardship zones, we demand the immediate gazettment of new hardship areas as recommended by Parliament,” Kuppet secretary general Akelo Misori told journalists on Thursday.
While noting the process of categorizing hardship areas is set out in law, Misori highlighted that Parliament plays a legal role in the categorization.
“Kuppet rejects the executive fiat, gazette notices or policy regulations that usurp the power of Parliament,” he said.
Kuppet Secretary-General Akelo Misori addresses journalists on June 4, 2025, at the union’s headquarters in Nairobi.
Photo credit: Billy Ogada| Nation Media Group
Teachers form the single largest group of government employees, with thousands of them stationed in areas currently gazetted as hardship zones, hence earning a hardship allowance which is equivalent to 30 percent of their basic salary.
The review on hardship areas means that the monetary benefits accorded to civil servants and specifically teachers in those areas will be at stake.
Misori noted that the hardship allowance accorded to teachers is a result of years of agitation by the tutors rather than mere declaration of boundaries.
“The new hardship areas should include Chepalungu, Chonyi, Nyatike West, Nyatike North, Rachuonyo North, Mwala and Kalama sub-counties in Bomet, Kilifi and Machakos counties, respectively,” Misori said.
Currently, the civil service, county governments and state corporations categorize 16 hardship areas. The Judiciary service has 21, while the teaching service has 44.
Mr Mudavadi told Parliament that the new classification was informed by field visits, county statistics, socio-economic data, poverty indices, and reports from agencies such as the Kenya National Bureau of Statistics (KNBS) and the Commission on Revenue Allocation(CRA).
Prime Cabinet Secretary and CS for Foreign and Diaspora Affairs, Musalia Mudavadi during an interview in his office in Nairobi on May 22, 2025.
Photo credit: Dennis Onsongo | Nation Media Group
The report on reclassification of designated hardship areas was drafted in 2019 has never been implemented, but Mr Mudavadi said it will finally be done.
“The Union rejects the ghost report of the so-called InterAgency Technical Committee under the Ministry of Public Service, Performance and Delivery Management that recategorised hardship areas,” he said.
The reclassification report has been submitted to the Head of Public Service for gazettement, pending Cabinet approval.
According to Mr Mudavadi, the KNBS provided parameters to guide the interagency technical committee in reviewing designated hardship areas. These parameters include food, water, transport and communication services, social services, climate and terrain, security and the poverty index.
