Machakos: Unemployed teachers protest discrimination

An MP and some of the applicants for teaching jobs in Machakos County now want the recruitment process cancelled citing irregularities.

Yatta Member of Parliament Robert Basil, appealed to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) chief executive Dr Nancy Macharia to intervene in the matter and repeat the exercise to ensure fairness.

The MP accused the Machakos county office of presiding over a flawed process that saw many candidates locked out. “We demand a fresh exercise that should be overseen by a new independent county director who will be fair,” said Basil.

He said that most local teachers lost employment opportunities after their slots were taken by persons, not from the region.

Basil spoke as some of the affected teachers threatened to demonstrate over the process that they termed a sham.

Speaking to journalists in Machakos town, through their representative, they faulted the TSC leadership in the county. “We are shocked that most of us who graduated between 2011 – 2012 were left out despite being qualified,” said Lawrence Mutavi, an applicant. 

He said for the first time, the exercise, was manipulated to favour a few. “We were denied the rightful opportunity. All applicants want TSC to intervene to have the exercise revoked and repeated,” said Beatrice Mutaki, another teacher’s representative.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) officials from the area have also raised concerns over the recruitment process.

Yatta Knut branch Assistant Treasurer, Richard Kitaka, termed the just concluded exercise as “an abuse to the applicants”.

“We want justice for job applicants and this will only be attained if the process is repeated, he said. 

TSC county director Lewis Mutegi admitted there were a few complaints that are being handled by his office.