The Employment and Labour Relations Court has ordered the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and over 100 interdicted teachers from North Eastern Kenya to enter mediation in a bid to resolve a protracted dispute stemming from insecurity-related absenteeism.
The case, filed under Kethawa vs Teachers Service Commission and State Law Office, centers on teachers who fled their workstations due to repeated Al-Shabaab attacks including the 2020 Kamuthe incident in Garissa that left three teachers dead only to be later punished for absenteeism.
Justice Byram Ongaya, sitting at Milimani, directed both parties to appear before the Deputy Registrar on Monday, July 21, to appoint a court-approved mediator. The mediation process must conclude by September 1.
Top TSC officials, including the Chairperson and CEO, are required to attend the sessions in person, alongside every affected teacher. The court has warned of sanctions for non-compliance.
“The affected teachers are to attend the mediation proceedings, every one of them,” Justice Ongaya ruled. “Failure to obey this court’s orders may attract penal consequences.”
The court’s intervention comes after repeated breakdowns in earlier negotiations. In 2024, 120 teachers returned to court seeking to block TSC from reposting them to the North Eastern region. Though the court granted time for a negotiated settlement, the teachers claim TSC failed to follow through.
The case exposes longstanding grievances about teacher deployment in terror-prone areas, where non-local staff face heightened risks. Since 2020, many teachers have remained jobless and claim they have been unfairly victimised.
If the mediation fails, the court will reconvene on October 22, 2025, to chart the next steps. For now, the ruling offers a glimmer of hope for a humane resolution to a crisis that has cost lives, livelihoods, and faith in Kenya’s education system.
