President William Ruto has unveiled a fresh package of measures for teachers, expanding promotion slots, pledging more funding for career progression, and promising action on housing, healthcare and retirement benefits, in what he described as the largest single-year teacher promotion exercise in Kenya’s history.
Speaking at World Teachers’ Day celebrations at Kasarani Gymnasium in Nairobi on Monday, October 5, Ruto said the government had doubled the teacher promotions budget from Sh1 billion to Sh2 billion for this financial year.
“This year we doubled the budget for teacher promotions from Sh1 billion to Sh2 billion. Third, the Commission has already advertised 34,016 promotion opportunities. Today I am directing that this number be increased to 50,000. The Government will provide additional funding to make this possible,” he said.
The directive builds on a commitment Ruto first made in September 2025, after teachers raised concerns about career stagnation during a meeting with him at State House.
Since his administration took office in 2022, 126,462 teachers have been promoted, more than under any previous government, though Ruto acknowledged the pace had not fully solved the problem.
“Even so, you told me last year that too many of you had remained in one grade for far too long, some for decades,” he said.
Ruto confirmed that consultations between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and teachers’ unions on new Career Progression Guidelines had been completed, with the proposals now awaiting approval from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission, expected within two weeks.
Under the proposed guidelines, teachers would for the first time be able to rise to the highest classroom grade without leaving teaching altogether, with separate career tracks created for classroom practitioners and those pursuing leadership or administrative roles.
On recruitment, Ruto said the government had hired 100,000 teachers over the past four years, with a further 20,000 expected to join by December 2026, a figure he called the largest expansion of the teaching workforce in the country’s history.
He also announced that Sh4.9 billion had been set aside to move 20,000 teachers who have completed two-year internships onto permanent and pensionable terms from January 2027, while confirming an existing Sh8.1 billion allocation in the 2026/27 budget to support the ongoing teachers’ Collective Bargaining Agreement, with the first phase of salary increases paid last year and the second phase in July 2026.
Even with that expansion, Ruto acknowledged the sector still faces a shortfall of roughly 116,000 teachers, a gap he attributed to recruitment failing to keep pace with rising student enrolment.
On healthcare, Ruto said the number of facilities where teachers can access inpatient care had grown from about 900 to 3,871, lifting the inpatient access rate from 7 per cent to 14 per cent.
He said the medical scheme now covers 415,608 teachers and 884,392 dependants, and that more than 680,000 teachers and family members had used outpatient, inpatient, optical, dental and imaging services under the scheme between December 2025 and September 2026.
On retirement, Ruto pointed to the Pension Management Information System, launched by the TSC and National Treasury on July 1, 2026, which is being rolled out to speed up the processing of retirement benefits. “Within three months, the system would enable teachers to receive their retirement benefits within 10 days of retirement. And after a lifetime of service, retirement must come with dignity,” he said.
On housing, he said 20 per cent of units in government housing developments would be reserved for teachers, with a check-off arrangement being developed to let them repay housing costs directly through their salaries. He also said the government would review school capitation rates, which have remained largely unchanged since 2016, covering allocations for primary, junior secondary and secondary schools.
Union leaders used the occasion to press for further reforms. KUPPET chairman Omboko Milemba called for the promotion of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers and urged the government to consider unemployed P1 teachers aged 45 and above, while also pushing for greater administrative autonomy for Junior Secondary Schools, arguing that the current arrangement had created tension between primary school heads and JSS teachers.
KNUT Secretary-General Collins Oyuu welcomed the progress on promotions but called for a review of the four-year CBA cycle, noting that teachers had already received the first two phases of the current agreement. TSC Chairman Jamleck Muturi noted that Ruto was the first Kenyan president since independence in 1963 to personally join teachers in marking World Teachers’ Day.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba said the increased investment was intended to strengthen the sector and support the ongoing transition to Competency-Based Education.
The announcements come even as the government faces competing demands on a constrained budget, raising questions over how far the new commitments can be funded and sustained, with officials yet to specify precisely where the additional funding for the expanded promotion exercise will come from, or exactly which job grades the extra 15,984 promotions will cover.
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