The High Court has issued conservatory orders halting the recruitment of a new Chief Executive Officer (CEO) for the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), in a new twist in the never-ending hiring saga.
Barely seven days after the court had cleared TSC to proceed with the hiring of a new CEO, the High Court issued fresh orders suspending the recruitment process, pending the determination of a fresh application filed before the court.
Justice Dorah Chepkwony, while issuing the conservatory orders, certified the application as urgent and set the hearing for the case on March 5, 2026.
“That a conservatory order be and is hereby issued staying, suspending and restraining the 1st Respondent (TSC) from implementing or continuing with the ongoing recruitment exercise of the Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the 1st Respondent pending the inter-partes hearing of the application,” read a section of the ruling.
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The orders dealt a fresh blow to the TSC, after the hiring process had just resumed on Thursday, January 29, following the lifting of an earlier injunction that had frozen the process since May last year.
During last week’s hearing of the matter, the court ruled that the petitioner had failed to provide sufficient evidence to justify the halting process and did not demonstrate how the recruitment would hugely affect public interest.
In his petition, the petitioner had argued that the law had unfairly restricted the position to holders of a degree in education and that the recruitment process was discriminatory, exclusionary and unconstitutional. He also faulted the 21-day application window, online submissions, and the alleged failure by the TSC to formally declare a vacancy before advertising the position.
The position fell vacant on June 30, 2025, after the expiry of the term of long-serving CEO Nancy Macharia. Since then, Evaleen Mitei has been the TSC CEO, albeit in an acting capacity.
The TSC CEO position is a crucial one, and amongst the most powerful in the public service. The incoming head would be the 10th CEO in TSC’s history.
Its duties and responsibilities include overseeing more than 400,000 teachers, controlling a wage bill running into hundreds of billions of shillings, and shaping key decisions on teacher recruitment, deployment, discipline, and professional development.
Critically, the latest orders come at a time when the education sector is experiencing significant challenges, such as the transition of learners to senior school, and shortages of teachers in the recently introduced Grade 10 learning areas.
In the quest to succeed Macharia, several high-profile names have been linked to the post, including former Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary General Wilson Sossion, former Basic Education Principal Secretary Julius Jwan, and a couple of current high-ranking TSC officials.
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