Nancy Macharia fires her deputy over corrupt scandals

The Teachers Service Commission Chief Executive Officer, Nancy Macharia, has fired the deputy CEO, Kennedy Juma Mulunda.

Reports indicate that Mulunda was found guilty of using his authority to bully school principals in the Western and Nyanza region into granting contracts to a particular company.

A panel of Commissioners investigating him also found him culpable of making threats to teachers who refused to listen to him saying that he would deal with them should he take over from Macharia once she retires from the Commission.

The TSC deputy CEO was accused of abusing his position on several occasions in 2020 and 2021 by harassing, coercing, and pressuring staffing officers to transfer multiple principals in Western and Nyanza outside of the authorized transfer zone and against the Commission’s transfer guidelines.

According to the Nation, a school principal testified that Mulunda influenced the school to award the tender of laboratory chemicals and equipment to a company that was not among the prequalified suppliers.

The Commission also heard that school heads who refused to follow his instructions would be threatened with transfers as a way of punishing them.

In some of the schools, the principals told the commissioners that Mulunda engaged chairpersons of boards to award the tenders to the companies without following procurement regulations. In other schools, he coerced the principals to award the tenders to his relatives.

“Pursuant to the provisions of clause 10 of your employment contract, the Commission has made a decision to terminate your employment contract with effect from June 20, 2022,” the letter by Macharia read in part.

In the letter, as the person in charge of the Secretariat Personnel, Mulunda was informed of his dismissal after a report by the Commission was presented to Macharia.

The TSC CEO claimed that the investigations turned up a mountain of evidence against Mulunda and the commissioners had given her specific orders on her embattled deputy.

He was also accused of using his position as the deputy CEO to intimidate the Commission’s officials in the regions.

The Nation reported that Jamleck Muturi, the chairman of the TSC, created a special committee to look into the claims of abuse of authority made against Mulunda and it went ahead to produced a report in February.