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Wamuchomba jabs govt over plans to scrap teachers’ hardship allowances
05th October, 2025 06:38 PM
Caption:Wamuchomba jabs govt over plans to scrap teachers' hardship allowances.VIDEO/K24TV Githunguri Member of Parliament Gathoni Wamuchomba has vowed to defend the teachers’ hardship allowance, warning that scrapping the vital stipend would amount to betrayal of educators working in some of the country’s most difficult environments.
She expressed deep concern that the report may sail through due to a lack of sufficient opposition in the House.
Speaking on Sunday, October 5, 2025, during the celebration of World Teachers’ Day in Nairobi, Wamuchomba revealed that the report proposing to eliminate the hardship allowance is currently pending approval in the National Assembly.
“I was seated there in the National Assembly when the report was presented. We told them, even though we were the minority then in the House, you cannot take away the hardship allowance for teachers,” she said.
Also watch: Ministry of Education seeks MPs’ support to protect hardship allowances.
The MP warned that while teachers working in urban areas like Nairobi may not currently benefit from the allowance, they must not ignore the plight of their colleagues in hardship zones.
“You may not be the person receiving the hardship allowance right now because maybe you work in Nairobi. But let me tell you, your colleagues are going to suffer if that allowance is scrapped,” Wamuchomba alarmed.
She decried the difficult conditions under which teachers serve, mentoring and shaping the country’s top performers despite overwhelming odds.
“You know that a boy in Alliance High School was mentored and made by a teacher who has persevered through the hardship in Turkana for that boy to qualify. You cannot scrap hardship allowance for a teacher in Lodwar who is perpetually fighting with budgets to make a girl at Saraya Girls High School succeed,” she argued.
Elsewhere, teachers have warned of Mental Health strain as the government moves to scrap hardship allowances.
Wamuchomba’s roar
The legislator has urged Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba, Chief Administrative Secretary, and Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to stand firm in support of the welfare of the teachers.
“I want to ask for your support. Will you support those of us who are supporting you? Will you stand with us in the National Assembly?” she appealed.
The bill proposes introducing key reforms, including a new Section 32A that outlines the criteria and procedures for assigning teachers to act in higher positions.
A new ‘Schedule Four’ appended to the Bill lists nine allowances that may be granted under specific conditions. These are: Housing allowance, Commuter allowance, Hardship allowance, Responsibility allowance, Special school allowance, Reader’s facilitation allowance, Leave allowance, and Transfer allowance.
The proposed legislations argue that while most of these allowances will be non-pensionable, the responsibility allowance will be pensionable if a teacher earns it up to and including their last date of service.
“The principal object of this Bill is to amend the Teachers Service Commission Act to provide various allowances that the Commission may pay to teachers over and above their basic pay,” it reads in part.
