• Teachers with medical conditions and those above 56 years also be spared from the transfers
• KNUT, KUPPET oppose new announcement
Image: FILE
Only teachers married to their colleagues will be spared the TSC transfers, chief executive officer Nancy Macharia has said.
"In undertaking delocalisation, the TSC has a policy regarding what constitutes a teacher's family. The family refers to a teacher to teacher marriage," she said.
The Teachers Service Commission boss spoke on Tuesday when she appeared before the National Assembly's Committee on Education.
The directive is expected to stir fresh trouble between the commission and teachers' unions. The Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education teachers oppose the delocalisation policy.
President Uhuru Kenyatta asked the TSC to go slow on the transfers on August 19 last year. He said this would prevent the breaking up of families. However, the plea appears to have fallen on deaf years.
In December last year, the commission transferred 3,094 teachers amid protests.
Macharia also said teachers with medical conditions and those above 56 years will be spared from transfers.
However, following a court order halting the transfers, only newly recruited teachers will be delocalised moving forward.
Knut secretary general William Sossion told the Star yesterday no family is special.
"It does not make any sense when the commission is discriminative on the choice of a definition of a family its employees choose to have. The President's directive was clear but the TSC ignored it," he said.
Kuppet secretary general Akello Misori also opposes the policy.
TSC introduced the programme in 2017 and about 8000 teachers transferred.
But the programme still faces criticism as teachers affected by transfers are usually separated with their families, some leading to marriage break ups.
Teachers are often posted far from home counties, making life harder for their families.
The policy is being implemented amid an acute shortage of teachers in public schools.
In May 2018, Macharia released new guidelines demanding tutors serve at least five years in the counties where they are posted before they can seek a transfer to their preferred regions.
The TSC faced a crisis when teachers fled Northeastern counties of Mandera, Garissa and Wajir over terror attacks and hostility from locals.