BY GASTONE VALUSI
Machakos KUPPET Branch Council Member and teachers’ representative Mambo George has faulted the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over its alleged local-to-local employment approach, warning that the policy risks reducing a national constitutional mandate to a community-based agenda.
Mambo questioned when the commission became a local institution, insisting that its mandate was national and constitutionally protected.
“TSC is not a county government institution. It is not a constituency institution. It is not a clan institution. It is a national constitutional commission,” said Mambo.
He said Kenyans deserved to know the legal basis of the alleged local recruitment approach and why qualified teachers should be denied opportunities simply because they were born in a different county.
“Why should a Kenyan teacher be denied an opportunity to serve Kenyan children simply because he or she was born in a different county?” he posed.
Mambo argued that the alleged policy was inconsistent with Kenya’s national education system, which brings together learners and teachers from different parts of the country.
He noted that national schools admit learners from counties such as Machakos, Turkana, Kisii, Mombasa and Nairobi, questioning why a teacher’s birthplace should determine where they can work.
“Why should the teacher’s birthplace matter when the learner’s birthplace does not?” he asked.
He further argued that if TSC adopted a localised approach to recruitment, other national institutions involved in education would similarly have to adopt county-based systems.
“If TSC is going local, then KNEC should also set different national examinations for different counties,” he said, describing such a situation as unthinkable.
According to Mambo, the biggest victims of the alleged recruitment approach are young, qualified teachers who he claimed were being turned away at recruitment centres because they were considered outsiders.
“A teacher does not become less qualified because they crossed a county boundary. No qualified Kenyan should be made to feel like a foreigner in their own country,” Mambo said during an interview yesterday.
He urged the TSC to protect its independence and maintain its national character, insisting that recruitment should be based on merit, qualifications and competence rather than a teacher’s place of birth.
“A teacher from Kisii should not be considered a stranger in Machakos. A teacher from Machakos should not be considered a stranger in Kisii. Kenyan teachers belong to Kenya,” Mambo said.
