West Pokot Governor in trouble over demotion of 1,652 ECDE teachers

West Pokot Governor Simon Kachapin was on Tuesday put on the spot by senators over a move to revoke the promotion of over 1,650 early childhood development education (ECDE) teachers to permanent and pensionable terms.

The development comes after the Senate Committee on Education heard that the teachers had been promoted from contractual to permanent terms on July 18, 2022, by former Governor John Lonyangapuo, only for the move to be rescinded by the new administration.

The County Public Service Board confirmed all ECDE teachers as permanent and pensionable a day later, and the resolution was to take effect on August 1, 2022.

Nonetheless, the resolution was suspended by the Board on September 21, 2022, days after Governor Kachapin had been sworn into office.

Appearing before the committee chaired by Murang’a County Senator, Joe Nyutu, Governor Kachapin was hard-pressed by the committee to explain why his administration took such a drastic step contrary to the law.

Attempts by the Governor to say that the promotions were done on a political basis by his predecessor as a campaign tool, fell on deaf ears.

“There was a resolution to change the terms of employment of the teachers to permanent and pensionable and issued with letters to the effect. How did the Board revoke the same?” posed Taita Taveta Senator Johnes Mwaruma.

The Governor was on the spot after the West Pokot Senator raised a statement before the Senate over the plight of the ECDE teachers in the county.

He said that the teachers have been complaining of poor remuneration, and unfair job groupings where some are classified as clerks, yet they are trained ECDE teachers.

Senator Murgor pressed the county boss to tell the committee if he also put pressure on the board to vacate the earlier resolution to promote the teachers to permanent and pensionable terms.

“Why should the governor subject the teachers to such humiliation? He is talking about political duress for the promotions, did he also do the same to the Board to negate the earlier resolution because it is under his leadership that this is happening?” posed Senator Murgor.

Governor Kachapin had claimed that the promotions were done by Prof Lonyangapuo just 20 days before the August 9 elections as a ploy to win the support of the teachers with the Board put under duress to effect the resolution as Sh480 million was needed for the same.

“My predecessor waited until the tail end of his term and with no budget to promote the teachers. This was done politically to hoodwink the teachers to vote for him. The Board was under duress and was forced to effect the resolution because of campaigns,” said Mr Kachapin.

The governor told the committee that his administration, despite revoking the earlier resolution, has budgeted Sh60 million for the promotions in the financial ending June 30, 2025, but under different terms.

“We spend approximately Sh279 million on salaries and emoluments for ECDE teachers. To absorb all of them into permanent and pensionable terms, it requires an additional Sh134.4 million,” he said.

He said the teachers have received their letters but some of them have gone to court to challenge the new terms offered by the county government.

The county government has a total of 1,652 ECDE teachers in different cadres where 1,089 are on contract engagement while 563 are casuals.

A total of 1,194 are registered with the Teachers Service Commission while 458 are not yet registered with TSC.

“Why revoke an earlier decision and implement it now under different terms if you are also not playing politics?” charged nominated Senator Peris Tobiko.

Nominated Senator Professor Margaret Kamar warned the county boss that the teachers will win against the county government should they proceed to court.

Appearing to differ with Governor Kachapin, the Board’s chairperson John Matakou told the committee that they received an advisory on the promotions of the teachers in April 2022 but the confirmation was delayed by the late response from the county’s Finance department, resulting in the confirmation being done on July 18, 2022.

After the advisory, we verified the documents and began communicating with the relevant departments as the teachers’ contracts were coming to an end on June 30, 2022, but Finance delayed their response,” said Mr Matakou.

He said that the revocation came after the Finance department responded that they had no budget to fully effect the promotions, leading to the revocation of the promotion letters and extension of the contracts by 18 months to December 2023.

Machakos Senator Agnes Kavindu raised concerns over payment of as little as Sh6,000 to some of the teachers which falls below the recommended minimum wage.

“This is very discriminatory and should not be allowed. What can Sh6,000 do in the current economy?” she posed.

This is after it emerged that the county government has engaged Form Four leavers to teach in the ECDE centres despite not being trained in the Competency Based Curriculum.

“These are people who are not trained on CBC but are teaching. It is illegal. What do you do to see to it that the learners get quality education from the caretakers?” posed Mr Nyutu.

However, the county government defended themselves saying the untrained teachers are teaching under the guidance of CBC-trained counterparts and are being paid Sh8,000 monthly.