- Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association(Kethawa) had on December 28, moved to court to stop TSC from reposting the said teachers.
- In the court papers, Kethawa alleged insecurity, discrimination and violation of their rights and fundamental freedoms by TSC.
Image: The Star
The High Court has temporarily stopped the Teachers Service Commission from reposting non-local teachers fleeing over what they termed as insecurity in the Northeastern region.
Employment and Labour Relations Court judge Benard Manani also ordered that pending the hearing and determination of the application, TSC be restrained from taking disciplinary action against its members on the matters that form the basis of the grievance under inquiry.
"Pending the hearing and determination of the application inter-parties, an order is at this moment issued prohibiting the 1st respondent from re-posting the teachers who are members of the applicant herein to Northeastern Kenya where they fled from due to insecurity," the judge ordered.
Kenya Teachers in Hardship and Arid Areas Welfare Association(Kethawa) through their lawyer Wangonya Wangenye, had on December 28, moved to court under a certificate of urgency seeking the court to stop TSC from reposting the said teachers back to the Northeastern region until the case Kethawa filed in court is heard and determined.
The petitioners(Kethawa) are teachers previously working in Northeastern Kenya.
In court papers, Kethawa alleged insecurity, discrimination and violation of their rights and fundamental freedoms by TSC.
The welfare accused TSC of not making a concrete investigation to ascertain the insecurity, discrimination from the local community and coercion to belief and profess to Muslim faith for Christian non-local teachers that precipitated the teachers to flee the Northeastern region around August and September 2023.
"The decision to find these non-local teachers guilty and reposting them to the religion they fled due to insecurity and discrimination by the local community violated the teachers' constitutional right to life under article 26 and freedom from discrimination under article 27 and freedom of religion and belief under article 32 of the Constitution," the court papers read.
They argue that the non-local teachers explained all these scenarios with documentary evidence to the Teachers Service Commission during the hearing of their disciplinary cases between the dates of 4th, 5th, 6th and 7th of December 2023 but the same was ignored by TSC in making the final decision of their cases.
According to Kethawa, Cabinet Secretary for Interior Coordination of the National Government Kithure Kindiki declared the Northeastern region unsafe for non-local teachers and made a recommendation to TSC to transfer the applicants' non-local members to safe regions and also shorten their period of stay in the North when he appeared before the National Assembly committee on education on August 2, 2023.