Term Three Reopening at Risk as KUPPET Sets Date for Nationwide Teachers’ Strike

Learning in public secondary schools risks disruption at the start of Term Three after the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) issued a seven-day strike notice to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over delayed teacher promotions.

The union said teachers will begin a nationwide strike on August 14 unless the TSC promotes the remaining 16,000 teachers out of the 50,000 whose promotion was promised by President William Ruto.

KUPPET stressed that the affected teachers met the promotion requirements but were left out of the latest promotion exercise.

It added that the issue is particularly significant because the latest promotions came after nearly a decade without a large-scale promotion exercise, leaving many teachers in the same job groups for years.

According to KUPPET, TSC has so far advertised only 34,000 promotion vacancies instead of the 50,000 promised by the President.

Union Secretary General Akello Misori accused the commission of failing to implement President Ruto’s directive on teacher promotions.

“The Commission’s failure to advertise the exact number which the President himself had pronounced, 50,000 vacancies which he mandated on September 13, 2025,” said Misori.

“If the Teachers Service Commission does not do justice to this, then they are calling back industrial action that we had thought was now behind us. When we now move to involve our teachers in industrial action, it will not serve this country well.”

On his part, KUPPET National Chairperson Omboko Milemba said the commission’s handling of the promotion exercise had angered teachers, noting that promotions had remained stalled for nearly a decade before President William Ruto’s directive.

“Remember, initially, promotions for teachers had been halted for about 10 years. But when the president tells TSC to recruit over 50,000 teachers, now they are only advertising 34,000 teachers, that clearly indicates something,” Milemba said.

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Union Raises Concern Over Acting School Principals

KUPPET is also concerned about teachers in Job Group D2, who it says have continued serving as school principals in an acting capacity beyond the legally permitted period.

Under the TSC grading structure, Job Group D2, also known as T-Scale 12, comprises teachers serving as Deputy Principal II, Senior Master I or Senior Lecturer I.

Milemba said many of these teachers should have been promoted to Job Group D3, where they would be substantively appointed as principals, but had instead continued serving in acting positions for more than six months.

“When you put a teacher in an acting position beyond six months, you violate Labour guidelines that prohibit workers from acting beyond six months,” he said.

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The strike threatens to disrupt the final school term, which is scheduled to begin on Monday, August 24, 2026, and end on Friday, October 23, 2026, ahead of the national examinations.

The strike notice comes a week after the Teachers Service Commission announced one of its largest recruitment drives of the year on July 28, advertising 54,016 teaching vacancies.

The vacancies include 34,016 promotion opportunities for serving teachers and 20,000 positions for post-primary teachers to teach in junior schools.

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