By Bonface Mulyugi

Deputy President Kithure Kindiki has said the government will promote 50,000 teachers through improved budgetary allocation in the coming financial year.

Prof. Kindiki assured teachers that their pleas have been factored into the 2026/27 budget allocation by the administration that is keen to improve their welfare.

“In the coming budget, we have factored in the money for teachers’ promotions. The target was 25, 000 teachers initially but after further consultations with the unions, the government will now be promoting 50,000 teachers,” DP revealed.

Speaking on Saturday during the Thanksgiving ceremony of newly elected KUPPET Meru Branch Executive Secretary Njira Muthomi in Meru, the DP said some of the beneficiaries have been stuck in one job level for over 10 years.

“We are doing everything possible to improve teachers’ welfare through better terms of service and increasing their number to reduce the workload of the individual teacher,” he added.

To ensure they receive adequate health cover through SHA, Prof. Kindiki assured teachers that their concerns are being addressed.

“We need to improve the SHA packages for teachers. We will expedite resolution of issues raised by teachers to ensure their health is assured because it is paramount to have a healthy teacher,” he stated.

Prof. Kindiki said the government understands the importance of teachers and would go out of its way to make them better members of society.

“Teachers are the only people who spend most of their time thinking about the welfare of children of other people more than they think about their own. Because of this, we salute you because you are the best examples of sacrifice for others,” he added.

On top of improving their welfare, the administration has also invested heavily in education infrastructure to better the learning environment for all learners.

The DP said this has been achieved through a massive increase in the budget from Ksh.500 billion in 2022 to Ksh.765 billion in the next financial year.

Key achievements since 2022 include the employment of 100,000 teachers and another 20,000 to be employed in the next few weeks. The government has also constructed 23,000 classrooms and 1600 laboratories.

Also, 3300 tutors have been recruited for the TVET institutions as well as rolling out reforms that have enabled higher enrolment.

Prof. Kindiki also said they are looking into the requests to make Junior Secondary School independent.

“We have heard your requests to make JSS autonomous. We are going to discuss with various stakeholders to see what we can do as we wait for parliamentary intervention,” he announced.