TSC CEO Nancy Macharia About To Retire; PSC New Laws
There is uncertainty around the precise date that Dr. Nancy Njeri Macharia, Secretary/CEO of the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), will leave her position in accordance with two different sets of public service regulations.
The Public Service Cabinet Secretary Aisha Jumwa released a circular in February of this year that changes the course of events for the fiery TSC chairman. The Commission extended her term in office for another five years in June 2020, indicating that she is due to leave her post in June 2025.
The Public Service Commission (PSC) was reminded by the government’s relevant authorities that the mandatory retirement age for all civil servants is 60 years of age, and 65 for those who have a disability. This warning came from the government in February 2023.
Jumwa as a result suspended all petitions for service extensions that were brought before her table and also canceled the cases already pending, saying that this would pave the way for adequate succession planning within the public sector.
On April 1, 2009, the government changed the required retirement age from 55 to 60, and on November 1, 2020, the PSC denied requests from a number of civil officials who wanted to extend their employment from 60 to 65 years.
With the latest government mandate, it is unclear whether Dr. Macharia would finish out her tenure, which was extended to June 2025, or resign in accordance with the obligatory retirement age of 60 years.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia About To Retire; PSC New Laws
Dr. Macharia, who was born in 1963, will reach her retirement age of 60 this year. The teaching fraternity and TSC headquarters are currently abuzz with rumors due to the lack of information on this issue.
After replacing her then-immediate supervisor Gabriel Lengoiboni, who retired on June 30, 2015 after serving in the role for a respectable 11 years, Dr. Macharia became the leader of TSC. Macharia had been the Head of Teacher Management, a key department that makes decisions for the teaching service, under her predecessor.
Despite resistance from stakeholders and educators who disagreed with what they saw as her controversial policy initiatives, she was immediately given another mandate of five years after her first term ended in 2015.
The delocalization of teachers, which nearly destroyed teacher families but was eventually annulled by Parliament last year, and the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG) for Teachers, which were established in 2018 and replaced the Scheme of Service on Teachers’ Promotion, are just a few of her contentious initiatives.
The Teachers Performance Appraisal and Development (TPAD), an online teacher evaluation system that was eventually introduced as a result of the CPG, shattered the Commission’s relationship with Wilson Sossion, the then-secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).
When the then KNUT and TSC disagreed on various policies, especially the implementation of CPG on teacher promotion, the roll-out of the current Competence Based Curriculum (CBC), and the implementation of the 2016–2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), she was at one point accused of being a driving force behind the wars between the KNUT and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) between 2018 and 2020.
Nancy was also a key player in the KNUT unions’ decline from strength.
The notice of termination of the recognized agreement with the teachers union was given to KNUT by the TSC boss.
Associated Content Hours were changed for the vocal teacher after she criticized TSC’s insurance program.
Nancy Macharia, the head of TSC, wrote to the National Labour Board to inform them that KNUT membership had fallen below the level specified in their 51-year agreement.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia About To Retire; PSC New Laws
According to a portion of the letter that was cited by local media, “The Kenya National Union of Teachers does not have the simple majority of unionize employees under the employment of the Teachers Service Commission as at November 4, 2019.”
This occurred only a few days after Wilson Sossion, the KNUT Secretary General at the time, was expelled from the teaching fraternity. The troubled Nancy Macharia announced the conclusion of Sossion.
Many people harshly criticized this.
Supremo
After KNUT’s demise and the rise of the National Teachers Pressure Group (TPG), a group that has been under attack from TSC’s ruthless anti-union measures, Nancy’s authoritarianism was also on display.
Associated Content Building Affordable Housing at Centum A TSC punitive teacher transfer program in Kasarani, which was intended to punish TSC critics and teachers unions, has made TPG, led by their chairperson Martha Omollo, a victim. Mrs. Omollo was moved from a school in Nairobi to one in Trans Nzoia County. When Mrs. Omollo started speaking out too much against the TSC management, she was transferred. This was Nancy’s attempt to silence the group as a whole.
They received transfer letters after criticizing the teacher’s medical plan as unsatisfactory.
“Under Nancy Macharia, TSC has shown how vilely committed it is to destroying the teachers’ union through unfair labor practices and outright evil strategies, which currently include moving instructors to purportedly difficult locations.It is necessary to expose the TSC situation for what it is—a reign of terror. Linus Kaikai of Citizen TV addressed the issue at the time during a broadcast.
According to insiders, Macharia has been in a “well-greased” relationship with the insurance company to terminate the contract, which is also currently up for renewal.
Prior to Nancy Macharia, detractors painted a negative picture of TSC. The management of the TSC is characterized by high handedness, impunity, condescension, egotism, indifference, cruelty, and tyranny, among other traits.
She succeeds Jesse Muhoro (1967–1974), James Kamunge (1974–1977), Duncan Mwangi (1978–80), Joseph Lijembe (1980–82), Mr. Jackson Kang’ali (1982–1998), Benjamin Sogomo (1998–2003), James Ongwae (2003–2004), and Lengoiboni (2004–2015) as the ninth Secretary and CEO of the Commission.
