A Nairobi court has stepped into the simmering feud between Kenya’s two teachers’ unions, ordering the Teachers Service Commission, TSC, to hand over September agency fees collected from Junior Secondary School teachers.
Justice Monica Mbaru of the Employment and Labour Relations Court issued the interim order in a case brought by the Kenya National Union of Teachers against the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers.
The order requires TSC to deduct the fees and pass them on to KUPPET, in line with an earlier consent agreement reached between the two unions.
Court documents spell out the directive plainly: TSC must deduct and remit agency fees for September 2026 to KUPPET, covering all JSS teachers, “pursuant to the consent order herein between the Petitioner and the Respondent.”
Alongside the order, the court instructed that a Notice of Motion be served on TSC, giving the commission 14 days from September 16 to respond. The case returns to court on October 5, when TSC will also need to show it has complied.
At the heart of the matter is a question that has dogged JSS staffing for months: which union gets paid when a teacher benefits from a collective bargaining agreement but hasn’t actually joined the union that negotiated it.
Agency fees exist precisely for this scenario; they’re distinct from standard union dues, which only card-carrying members pay. Section 49 of the Labour Relations Act requires teachers who opt out of union membership to still contribute a fee if they’re reaping the rewards of that union’s negotiated pay bumps or conditions.
TSC’s move to start deducting these fees from JSS teachers en masse reignited the fight, with KUPPET arguing that non-members riding on its CBA owed the commission money regardless of their membership status.
The tension has spilled into individual branches, too. KNUT’s Nyamira chapter recently accused TSC of quietly shifting some of its members over to KUPPET or deducting agency fees without asking anyone’s permission first.
The branch is now pushing TSC to undo those changes and hand over paperwork showing how the reassignments were made.
But the fight isn’t just about who collects what; it touches a deeper disagreement about how junior secondary schools should even be run. KUPPET wants JSS carved out as independent, self-managed institutions, while KNUT is holding firm on keeping junior secondary sections embedded within existing comprehensive schools.
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