The Teachers Service Commission has received express authority to proceed with the hiring of the agency’s new Chief Executive Officer.
This follows the dismissal of a case filed by a member of the public challenging the process by the Employment and Labour Relations Court in Mombasa that found it lacked merit and that the recruitment process had not violated constitutional provisions governing public appointments.
The Commission had paused the process, awaiting court’s ruling on the legality of the petition. This put the expected interviews for shortlisted candidates on hold.
The petition had challenged aspects of the recruitment exercise, including alleged procedural irregularities in the application and selection process as well as lack of transparency, matters that the court found were sufficiently addressed within the existing process.
The decision comes as a relief to the Commission, which had been operating without a substantive CEO creating leadership uncertainty.
TSC is expected to continue with the steps it had temporarily halted, including interviews and final selection, in line with statutory recruitment procedures.
The formal recruitment process began in May last year when the commission advertised for the post, following Dr Nancy Macharia’s retirement after a decade stint at the recruitment body.
Applications were to be made by May 27, 2025 and the final process was expected to have been completed by July 1 same year but shortly after closure of the advertisement, the ELR court issued an interim order halting the process following the petition challenging the process.
The petition by a member of the public saw the court also order that status quo as of May 27, 2025 remain, until the matter was fully heard.
