Teacher Lost His Job After 25 Years of Service: What Every TSC Teacher Should Know About Compassionate Leave

A Kenyan teacher served for 25 years. Then a family medical emergency took him away from school for 15 days. What began with an urgent call about his critically ill father eventually became a disciplinary case, a dismissal, a review and a court battle that lasted years.

The Employment and Labour Relations Court has now upheld the Teachers Service Commission’s decision to dismiss Cleophas Ngeywa, formerly a teacher at Jamhuri High School in Nairobi. The case is important to teachers not because it establishes that caring for a sick parent is misconduct, but because it shows how a genuine emergency can collide with formal leave and permission requirements.

WHAT ACTUALLY HAPPENED

According to reporting by Daily Nation journalist Joseph Wangui, Ngeywa received an urgent call in February 2020 informing him that his father was seriously ill and had been admitted to Kitale County Hospital for surgery. He travelled from Nairobi to Kitale and was away from duty for 15 days.

Ngeywa told the court that while at the hospital he contacted school colleagues and arranged for them to cover his classes. He said they taught the classes, completed attendance records and remained in communication with him. He also said he sent a text message to his principal explaining his father’s illness and the arrangements he had made.

His father was discharged on March 13, 2020. Ngeywa returned to Nairobi that day and reported to school the following day. Nation reported that he marked Continuous Assessment Test scripts, entered learners’ marks and attended the March 16 closing assembly as schools closed during the Covid-19 outbreak.

THE 15 DAYS THAT BECAME A DISCIPLINARY CASE

Following investigations, Ngeywa appeared before the school’s Board of Management on September 3, 2020 and was later interdicted. TSC said he was informed that he could defend himself, present evidence and submit a written response.

The disciplinary panel found that he acknowledged the absence and attributed it to his father’s illness, but had not obtained written permission or compassionate leave. The principal disputed Ngeywa’s claim that a text message had been sent. TSC dismissed him.

Ngeywa appealed. A Review Committee heard him on August 31, 2022 and upheld the dismissal. In November 2023 he challenged the process before the Employment and Labour Relations Court, seeking reinstatement and salary and other benefits reportedly amounting to Sh1.3 million.

WHAT THE COURT DECIDED

In a judgment delivered on August 20, 2026, Justice Jemimah Keli dismissed the constitutional petition. According to the Nation report, the court found that Ngeywa had been given sufficient opportunity to prepare and present his case, that the reason for termination had been established, and that the disciplinary process met the threshold of substantial fairness.

A particularly important evidentiary point was the disputed communication with the principal. The court said Ngeywa did not produce evidence of the alleged communication. That matters far beyond this individual dispute: in employment proceedings, what happened matters, but what can later be demonstrated may matter just as much.

WHAT TSC RULES SAY ABOUT BEING ABSENT

The Teachers Service Commission Code of Regulations for Teachers provides that a teacher who is unable to attend assigned duties should apply in writing to the head of institution for permission to be absent. Permission may be granted by the head of institution in writing and in accordance with the Code.

The Code goes further: absence from duty without permission granted in writing is described as a gross breach of the regulations and may result in absence without pay, interdiction or other administrative action.

WHAT ABOUT COMPASSIONATE LEAVE?

TSC’s official leave information states that a teacher is allowed a maximum of 15 days of compassionate leave in one calendar year to attend to special needs such as bereavement, sickness or hospitalisation of dependants. Teachers are required to apply for the leave through the prescribed process.

COVERING YOUR LESSONS IS NOT THE SAME AS GETTING LEAVE

A teacher facing an emergency may understandably focus first on learners: call colleagues, arrange lesson coverage, send work and make sure the class is not abandoned academically. Those actions may be responsible, but they should not be confused with formal authorisation to be absent.

This case exposes three different actions that can easily be treated as if they mean the same thing: telling someone why you are leaving; arranging for another teacher to cover your work; and obtaining the permission or leave required by the employer. They are not necessarily equivalent.

BUT EMERGENCIES DO NOT WAIT FOR PAPERWORK

That is the uncomfortable reality behind the case. A parent can be admitted to hospital at night. A death can occur without warning. A teacher may have to travel hundreds of kilometres immediately. Employment procedures do not make those circumstances less human.

The practical lesson is not that a teacher should ignore a critically ill relative until paperwork is complete. It is that an emergency should trigger two tracks as soon as reasonably possible: deal with the emergency, while also creating the formal employment record required for the absence.

WHAT A TEACHER SHOULD DO

1. Notify the appropriate school administrator as soon as possible.
2. Apply for the appropriate leave or permission using the required TSC process.
3. Do not assume a verbal conversation or lesson-cover arrangement completes the leave process.
4. Preserve written communications, applications, acknowledgements and relevant supporting documents.
5. Follow up to establish whether permission or leave has actually been approved.
6. If circumstances make normal procedure impossible immediately, create a contemporaneous record and regularise the required process as soon as practicable.
7. Where a disciplinary dispute arises, seek appropriate professional, union or legal assistance based on the circumstances.

These are practical risk-management steps. The exact leave entitlement and procedure applicable to an individual teacher should always be checked against current TSC rules and the teacher’s circumstances.

WHY DOCUMENTATION CAN PROTECT A CAREER

Imagine being asked years later: Who did you contact? When? What did you say? Did you request leave? Was it approved? Where is the application? Where is the message? What documents support the emergency?

Those questions explain why documentation is not mere bureaucracy. Teachers have careers that can span decades. Leave, transfers, disciplinary correspondence, promotions and other employment decisions may later depend on records created years earlier.

WHAT THIS JUDGMENT DOES NOT MEAN

The decision should not be reduced to the claim that TSC can automatically dismiss any teacher who spends 15 days caring for a sick parent. Nor does it establish that every family emergency produces the same disciplinary outcome. Employment disputes turn on their facts, the applicable rules, evidence and procedure.

It would also be misleading to say that arranging lesson coverage is worthless. It may protect learners and demonstrate professional responsibility. The narrower point is that coverage does not necessarily replace the employer’s formal permission and leave requirements.

THE HARDER QUESTIONS FOR TSC AND SCHOOLS

The case also deserves scrutiny from the employer’s side. How easy is it for a teacher facing a sudden family crisis to understand and complete the required process? How clearly is the difference between notification and formal approval communicated? How should long service, the seriousness of the emergency and efforts to protect learners be weighed when disciplinary sanctions are considered?

Those are legitimate questions. Responsible journalism should neither turn a disciplinary decision into an attack on TSC nor treat regulations as if they remove the human circumstances behind an absence.

THE LESSON AFTER 25 YEARS OF SERVICE

Family or career should never have to feel like a choice. A critically ill parent will not wait for a leave form. A bereavement will not wait for an administrator to be available. Emergencies happen precisely because they cannot be scheduled.

But this case leaves teachers with a difficult lesson. When an emergency forces you away from your station, do not protect only the classes you are leaving behind. Protect the administrative record as well.

Make the call. Follow the required leave procedure. Keep the communication. Keep the documents. Confirm the approval where required.

Because years later, the question may no longer be simply whether you had a good reason for leaving. It may be whether you can prove that you followed the procedure required of you.

SOURCES AND EDITORIAL NOTE

This VibeSchool Teacher Desk explainer is based on Joseph Wangui’s September 1, 2026 reporting for Daily Nation, ‘Court backs TSC sacking of teacher who took 15 days to care for sick father’, together with the Teachers Service Commission’s official leave information and Code of Regulations for Teachers. VibeSchool has distinguished reported allegations and arguments from the court findings and from our practical guidance.

This article provides general information and journalistic analysis for Kenyan educators. It is not individual legal advice. Teachers facing disciplinary or employment disputes should consider obtaining appropriate professional or legal advice.