It’s all joy for teachers yesterday after the Supreme Court declined to rule on the teachers’ pay hike case that was filed by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

In their ruling, judges Willy Mutunga, Kalpana Rawal, Jackton Ojwang, Mohamed Ibrahim and Smokin Wanjala ruled that the court had no jurisdiction to overrule the Court of Appeal’s decision and ordered TSC to effect the 50-60% teachers’ pay rise in line with Court of Appeal ruling

“In these circumstances, we find that this court lacks jurisdiction to entertain an application challenging the exercise of discretion by the Court of Appeal,” the judges ruled.

In June this year, the Industrial Court awarded teachers a 50 to 60 per cent pay rise dating back from July 2013 to July 2017, but TSC appealed.

The court of appeal had told the TSC to continue paying the raised pay until its appeal is determined, with judges Mohammed Warsame, Sankale ole Kantai and Jamila Mohammed warning TSC that failure to comply with the order would lead to an automatic collapse of its appeal.

The Teachers Service Commission’s had moved to the Supreme Court to request it to suspend the Court of Appeal order.