Senior TSC Official Fired For Allegedly Forcing School Principals To Award Him Tenders

Dr. Kennedy Juma Mulunda, a deputy chief executive at the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), has been fired over gross misconduct allegations.

Mulunda was sacked after a team of commissioners drawn from TSC found him guilty of using his capacity, on diverse dates between 2020 and 2021, to threaten a number of school principals in the Western and Nyanza regions into awarding tenders to specific companies associated with him.

He is also accused of intimidating TSC officials in the said regions.

Principals who failed to conform to his advances, the commissioners said, were allegedly threatened with consequences such as being transferred.

Mulunda apparently made the threats on the assumption that he would succeed Dr. Nancy Macharia as TSC CEO in future.

He reportedly received his marching orders on June 20, 2022, via a letter penned by Macharia, who is the head of TSC’s secretariat staff.

Prior to this, Mulunda had received a termination letter from TSC in January after being taken through a disciplinary committee

 “Pursuant to the provisions of clause 10 of your employment contract, the commission has made a decision to terminate your employment contract with effect from June 20, 2022,” Macharia said in the letter.

TSC Chairman Dr. Jamleck Muturi is said to have assembled the investigation team that probed the incident, and submitted their detailed report in February.

Macharia was not a part of the committee since disciplinary actions at TSC are usually handled by the commissioners on the orders of the chairman.

Ten principals from the said schools took to the stand to testify against Mulunda.

One of the principals said Mulunda influenced the school to award a laboratory chemicals and equipment tender to a company that was not among the initial prequalified suppliers.

Others said he forced board chairpersons to award tenders without following due process, sometimes even to his relatives.

Mulunda however denied the allegations lodged against him.

“The commission has carefully reviewed your case, the evidence presented before it as well as your written response and determined that you were guilty of the allegations raised against you which is in violation of the terms and condition of your contract,” Macharia said in her letter.