‘There is money’: Mbadi now makes U-turn on JSS teacher employment

Mbadi, after stating in an interview with Citizen TV last Thursday that the exchequer has no money to employ the 20,000 teachers, has now retracted his statement, claiming he was ill-informed on the budgetary allocation status for the JSS teachers.

"Those who are saying there is money in the budget for JSS teachers are right. I am wrong and there is nothing with saying I am wrong. The communication was wrong from my side I should have been clearer," said Mbadi on Sunday during a phone interview with Citizen TV.

In his clarification, the CS argued that he was alluding to the existing cash crunch in the exchequer that would deny the teachers salaries for July to December.

He asserted that the conversion to permanent terms, set to be effected on January 2025, has already been budgeted for.

"What I should have made clear is that there is money in the budget for conversion of JSS teachers to permanent and pensionable from January 2025 and there is Ksh.22 billion available," he noted.

"I actually implied that there would be no money to pay them from July to December but I should have been very clear that there is money in the budget from January."

Mbadi further stated that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has also been apprised of the changes.

This lies on the backdrop of laments from the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) who announced a nationwide strike set for Monday, August 26, 2024.

The unions attributed the decision to TSC's failure to address critical grievances raised during a meeting held on July 16, 2024, to resolve the planned industrial action and issues affecting the welfare of teachers.

Education CS Julius Migos has also revealed that his ministry is facing an acute shortage of funding to address all the demands in the education sector.

Migos seemingly escalated the standoff by revealing that the government lacks funds to fully implement phase 2 of the 2021-2025 CBA.