The hiring of all 46,000 Junior Secondary School interns faces potential challenges following a budget cut by the Treasury intended for managing the exercise.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) had initially requested a budget allocation of Ksh30 billion, Ksh18 billion of which was expected to facilitate the hiring process. 

However, during last week's budget presentation in Parliament, the Treasury announced an allocation of an additional Ksh13.4 billion for the recruitment drive.

This allocation represents an increase from the Ksh8.3 billion approved by the National Assembly's Budget and Appropriation Committee to initiate the recruitment of interns on a permanent and pensionable basis.

Initially, the allocation of the funds was expected to confirm only 26,000 interns but the government resorted to hiring all the interns.

At the beginning of June, however, Kiharu MP Ndindi Nyoro, the Budget and Appropriations Committee chairperson, directed TSC to hire all JSS interns noting that the government had allocated enough funds for the project, at Ksh18 billion.

“I can assure this house that there are now sufficient resources to confirm the JSS interns into permanent and pensionable terms," Nyoro at the time.

“From this floor of this house, I want to request the TSC as you appropriate this money kindly do not wait until January 2025 to confirm the interns, Please hasten their confirmation as soon as the budget is passed."

Once the budget was presented, however, it became apparent that the allocation fell short of the money TSC requested to confirm all the teachers, raising concerns about fresh hitches in the recruitment process.

The interns, who took to the streets last month, lamented that the Ksh17,000 pay they were subjected to was way lower than the Ksh52,000 they would receive after confirmation.

Since the presentation of the budget, TSC is expected to meet the National Assembly Education Committee to iron out the recruitment process after a court ruling halted the process.

TSC had complained that the court's decision to direct the Commission to hire the interns on permanent and pensionable terms would throw the process into disarray.