On Sunday, May 11, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba addressed growing concerns over the proposed removal of hardship allowances for civil servants in certain parts of the country.
He appealed to Members of Parliament (MPs) to support efforts to ensure fairness in the allocation of these allowances, especially in regions that are still facing difficult working conditions.
Speaking in Laikipia County—one of the areas reportedly at risk of losing its hardship classification—Ogamba assured residents and public workers that his ministry would take action to prevent the removal of these crucial benefits.
He urged lawmakers to support a legislative proposal that would ensure all civil servants working in areas classified as hardship zones by one government department would also be recognized as such by other ministries. According to Ogamba, this would create fairness across all sectors.
“You will assist us in Parliament. Let us agree that if one ministry deems a location a hardship area, then the same should apply across the board to all ministries,” he said.
“I will come to you in Parliament to ask for your support in pushing for affirmative action in these regions,” Ogamba added.
The ongoing concern follows a 2019 report by an inter-agency technical committee that recommended removing 129 sub-counties from the list of hardship areas.
If implemented, this move would result in teachers and other civil servants working in those regions losing their hardship allowances.
Estimates show that civil servants could lose a combined total of up to Ksh6 billion annually if the reclassification takes effect.
In response to this, teachers—through their welfare association—have already taken legal action to stop the implementation of the report.
They argue that the process was flawed, claiming it lacked public involvement and proper scientific evaluation.
On Tuesday, May 6, a representative from the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) in Laikipia County criticized the report’s findings.
He questioned the government’s justification for the changes, particularly comments from Cabinet Secretary Musalia Mudavadi, who suggested that conditions in some areas, such as Laikipia, had improved since devolution in 2013.
“As someone representing teachers in Laikipia County, I was shocked to hear that the government is considering scrapping hardship allowances for civil servants and teachers in our region,” the KUPPET representative said.
“This move doesn’t make sense because the very issues that caused Laikipia to be classified as a hardship area in the first place are still affecting us. If it was insecurity, then that problem hasn’t gone away.”
He cited a disturbing recent incident to emphasize his point—where a teacher in Laikipia North was directly threatened with violence when a bullet was placed on her head, highlighting the ongoing danger faced by public servants in the area.
The debate over hardship allowance cuts has sparked a wider national conversation about fairness, safety, and recognition of the challenges many civil servants continue to endure while serving in remote and insecure areas.
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