Govt Releases Cash for Teachers’ New Salaries, Backdates them to Last Month

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC), on Wednesday, August 21,announced that the government had provided funds for implementation of the second phase of an increase on teachers’ salaries.

In a press statement released late into the night, TSC said the increase in salaries would be backdated to July 2024, adding that it was working to resolve the outstanding issues to avert a strike by teachers’ unions. 

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (KUPPET) have issued a nationwide strike over the TSC’s failure to action a number of items included in a Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) signed with unions. 

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“After today's discussions, the Commission is pleased to announce that the government has provided funds for the implementation of the 2nd phase of the CBA with effect from 1st July 2024,” the statement read.

Also resolved was the issue of promoting 51,232 teachers and access to both public and private hospitals for teachers under the Teachers Medical Scheme.

The development, however, was not sufficient for KUPPET and KNUT to call off their strike as five issues in their CBA remain unresolved. 

KRA Says it Bots to Catch Tax Evaders

The Kenya Revenue Authority (KRA) has announced that it is planning to use Artificial Intelligence bots to nab tax evaders. 

Speaking at the Supreme Court following his swearing in, KRA Director General Humphrey Mulongo stated that KRA would leverage artificial intelligence and big data analytics to boost revenue collection while streamlining the tax regime.

“Ours is to see how we are going to harness these advancements in technology so that we can drive compliance, facilitate enforcement, increase the tax base and ultimately reach the targets,” Mulongo said.

KRA's target for collecting ordinary revenue for the fiscal year 2022/23 that concluded on June 30 was not met. There was a Ksh104.3 billion shortfall since it only raised Ksh2.04 trillion as opposed to the target of Ksh2.14 trillion.

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