The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has broken its silence on why thousands of teachers received lower take-home pay in June after noticing higher deductions in their salaries.
In a statement issued on Tuesday, June 24, Acting TSC Chief Executive Officer Evaleen Mitei explained that the higher Pay As You Earn (PAYE) deductions reflected in June salaries resulted from the correction of a payroll system anomaly.
According to Mitei, the issue was identified within the Integrated Personnel and Payroll Database (IPPD) system and required immediate correction to ensure compliance with tax laws.
“The PAYE adjustment reflected in the June 2026 payroll arose from the correction of the payroll system configuration and was necessary to ensure accurate computation of Pay As You Earn deductions going forward,” said Mitei.
TSC explained that the anomaly emerged during the implementation of Section 7 of the Tax Laws (Amendment) Act, 2024. The amendment exempted employee contributions to the Affordable Housing Levy Fund and the Social Health Insurance Fund from income tax.
TSC On How the Payroll Error Occurred
The commission said that while reconfiguring the payroll system to accommodate the new tax exemptions, an unintended error occurred involving National Social Security Fund (NSSF) contributions.
Also Read: TSC Proposes New Salary Rates and Job Grades for Teachers
According to TSC, NSSF contributions, which were already tax-exempt under existing tax regulations, were mistakenly recaptured for tax relief purposes.
“This resulted in the application of a duplicate tax relief on NSSF contributions for all TSC employees,” the commission stated.
As a result, teachers and TSC secretariat staff benefited from lower PAYE deductions than those required under the law. The error effectively reduced the income tax deducted from employees’ salaries during the affected period.
Following the discovery of the anomaly, TSC corrected the payroll configuration, leading to higher PAYE deductions in the June 2026 payroll and a corresponding reduction in take-home pay for affected employees.
The commission maintained that the adjustment was necessary to restore accurate tax calculations and ensure future payroll processing aligns with the provisions of the Income Tax Act and other applicable tax regulations.
Teachers Raise Alarm Over Ksh108 Increase in PAYE Deductions
In June, teachers experienced an increase of approximately Ksh 108 in PAYE deductions.
Also Read: Looming Crisis at TSC as Acting CEO Nears Exit Without Way Forward
In a media interview on June 19, Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Deputy Secretary General Hesbon Otieno questioned the timing of the deductions, saying teachers had not received any corresponding salary increment to justify a higher tax obligation.
He noted that some teachers were seeing even higher deductions depending on their job grades, raising concerns over the rationale behind the PAYE adjustments at a time when payslips showed no increase in earnings.
Data reviewed from teachers’ payslips showed varying PAYE adjustments, with some cases indicating increases from Ksh10,334 to Ksh10,442 and others from Ksh18,279 to Ksh18,387.
According to union officials, the total additional deductions could reach approximately Ksh32.4 million in a single month if the adjustment were applied across the more than 300,000 teachers employed by TSC.
Follow our WhatsApp Channel and X Account for real-time news updates.
