The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) is demanding a 60 per cent salary increment and a 30 per cent increase in allowances.
According to KNUT’s Deputy Secretary General, Hesbon Otieno, the TSC has already submitted the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), set to expire on June 30, to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
Speaking to mourners at the burial ceremony of the late retired teacher Harrison Muriithi Gicira at Kiandangae ACK Church in Ndia Constituency on Wednesday, June 4, 2025, Otieno urged TSC to fast-track the negotiations by June 30, 2025.
“According to the current Kenyan economy, teachers should be given a 60% salary increase and a 30% increase on all allowances. We have communicated with our employer (Teachers Service Commission), and the proposal is with the SRC, and we urge them to fast-track and be done with the CBA by the end of June 2025,” he stated.
Furthermore, he has criticised the government for scrapping hardship allowances in certain areas, a move that has affected numerous teachers.
Similarly, he has threatened a nationwide industrial action if the hardship allowance is not reinstated for the said teachers.
“If the government touches the hardship allowance, all teachers will rise to defend their counterparts who receive it,” he added.
Hardship allowance review
This announcement follows the TSC’s comprehensive revision of hardship allowances and the reclassification of hardship areas nationwide on May 7, 2025.
The move, spearheaded by SRC, aims to alleviate the financial burden on the national budget by eliminating hardship allowances in certain regions while adjusting them in others.
Under the new framework, hardship areas will now be categorised into two distinct tiers: Extreme Hardship Areas and Moderate Hardship Areas. This classification marks a departure from the previous blanket designation, offering a more nuanced approach based on updated assessments of infrastructure development, accessibility, security, and availability of social amenities.
The changes, scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2025, will have significant implications for teachers and other public servants who have long relied on hardship allowances as compensation for working in remote, insecure, or underdeveloped regions.
According to the SRC, the review was informed by notable improvements in infrastructure, access to services, and general living conditions in several areas previously designated as hardship zones.
Among the most affected by the new policy are teachers stationed in regions that have been completely removed from the hardship classification. These include areas such as Tinderet, Soin, Bunyala, Elgeyo Marakwet, and Tharaka Nithi, where the government has determined that conditions have improved sufficiently to warrant the withdrawal of the hardship allowance.
