By GALGALLO FAYO, gfayo@ke.nationmedia.com
In Summary
- Court of Appeal judges John Mwera, Jamila Mohammed and Gatembu Kairu declined to give the TSC permission to appeal to the Supreme Court against an earlier High Court judgement.
- TSC was ordered by the High Court to pay Sh11.4 billion to the retirees in 2010, an amount estimated to have hit Sh42 billion after accruing interest.
- The commission appealed and lost and asked for permission to move to Supreme Court.
The Teachers Service Commission’s (TSC) move to
block the payment of more than Sh42 billion to 52,000 retirees has been
rejected.
Court of Appeal judges John Mwera, Jamila Mohammed
and Gatembu Kairu declined to give the TSC permission to appeal to the
Supreme Court against an earlier High Court judgement.
The three-judge Bench found that the application
seeking permission was filed three years late and no good explanation
for the delay was given. TSC was ordered by the High Court to pay Sh11.4
billion to the retirees in 2010, an amount estimated to have hit Sh42
billion after accruing interest, which it appealed and lost and asked for permission to move to Supreme Court.
“In short, the delay was attributed to government
bureaucracy. In our view, that explanation is not satisfactory and does
not explain why it took the applicant about three years to make the
application,” the judges said.
The judges said the application could have
succeeded since it involved a huge sum that will be paid by taxpayers,
but dismissed it due to delay in filling the case.
TSC had argued that the delay was caused by many
departments in government that were involved in determining practicality
and financial impact.
The commission said in an application filed in
September last year that the retired teachers’ allowances, salaries and
pension arrears up to July 1, 2013 were more than Sh111.4 billion.
This would increase the average national monthly
pension to Sh40 billion. The former teachers sued the commission in 2006
for pension from July 1997. The teachers won the case before Justice
David Maraga in Nakuru.
The case emanates from an agreement between the
Kenya National of Teachers Union (Knut) signed with the government that
raised teachers’ salaries and allowances.
The government failed to effect the increment, and
in 2003 a further agreement was signed in which the commission agreed
to effect the 1997 increment over six years.
But 20 teachers who had received only increment
before retiring moved to court in 2006 arguing that their retirement
benefits should be based on entire salary increment.
TSC opposed the application, saying that the benefits should be based on the last pay.
High Court ruled in their favour, and directed not
only the 20 petitioners, but all teachers to be paid, prompting TSC to
file an appeal in 2009.
The TSC challenged the award in the Court of Appeal ruled that it should pay.
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