The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), under the leadership of the feared and tactful trade union maestro the late Ambrose Adeya Adongo alias A.A.A, managed to secure a salary deal of 150 per cent for her members during the tough regime of the late president Daniel arap Moi. The pay deal, which was to cost Kenyan taxpayer a whopping Sh123 billion, met headwinds only after the first phase of implementation.

The government claimed the economy would have collapsed would it have paid the remaining Sh80 billion in four phases. And so the implementation schedule was halted, and further negotiations were planned to allow progress. After several consultative meetings between teachers’ trade unions, the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC), the Treasury and the Kibaki regime, it was agreed that the money be paid in four phases beginning 2003.

Along the implementation process, some teachers retired before fully benefitting from the deal. This led them to file a court case at the High Court in Nakuru so as to be assisted to access their payments since the law provides that once a pay agreement is entered between employers and employees, all employees should benefit entirely even if they exit the service within a month. 

There existed several bottlenecks in identifying who were to be the rightful beneficiaries of the pay deal. For several years, the courts were treated to varying numbers of the would-be beneficiaries, with other sources giving numbers ranging from 52,000 to 32,000 and later 31,000. But after an intensive audit, TSC gave the number as 23,811 teachers.

This meant the affected 23,811 teachers who were in service when the government agreed to pay salary increases of up to 150 per cent in five phases beginning from 1997 would benefit from this deal. It must be noted that the time difference - from five years to 10 years - of implementation was occasioned by two payment plans. 

According to one of them, the deal be addressed in two phases from 1997 to 1999. Then two, that there were three years of disagreement (2000 – 2002) in which after discussions, the implementation schedule resumed in 2003 and was cleared in 2006. By Collins Oyuu, The Standard