2026 KCSE exams at risk as teachers demand payment of unpaid allowances

With barely four months before hundreds of thousands of candidates sit the 2026 Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) examinations, a fresh standoff between teachers' unions and the government has cast uncertainty over one of the country's most important annual exercises.

At the center of the dispute is money - billions of shillings that teachers say remain unpaid for work they carried out during last year's national examinations.

Why teachers are threatening a boycott

The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), backed by officials from the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), has warned that teachers may decline to supervise, invigilate and mark this year's national examinations unless outstanding allowances are paid.

According to the unions, thousands of teachers who administered the 2025 KCSE examinations have either received delayed payments or are yet to receive their full dues despite repeated promises from the government.

The latest warning comes months after KUPPET first issued a boycott threat, arguing that teachers have lost confidence in the Kenya National Examinations Council (KNEC) over persistent payment delays.

The money at the center of the dispute

The government has already released KSh1.5 billion to KNEC to help clear part of the outstanding payments.

However, union officials say that amount is insufficient, maintaining that KNEC still requires roughly Sh4 billion more to fully settle pending allowances owed to exam supervisors, invigilators, examiners and other contracted professionals who participated in the 2025 examination cycle.

The unions argue that unless the balance is released, many teachers will be unwilling to take up examination duties again this year.

The dispute

The payment row has been building for months.

Following the 2025 national examinations, hundreds of KCSE examiners complained of delayed allowances, with some temporarily suspending marking before KNEC made partial payments.

Parliament later approved Sh1.5 billion in supplementary funding to help clear the arrears, while the National Treasury eventually released the money to KNEC in July.

Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba subsequently announced that the released funds had been disbursed to examiners and contracted professionals.

Despite that announcement, teachers' unions now maintain that many officials involved in supervision and invigilation remain unpaid or have not received the full amounts owed.

National papers

Unlike ordinary classroom teaching, national examinations depend on thousands of contracted teachers drawn from schools across the country.

Every examination center requires supervisors, invigilators, center managers and security personnel, while thousands of examiners are recruited to mark scripts once candidates complete their papers.

The smooth administration of KCSE therefore depends heavily on teachers voluntarily accepting these assignments in addition to their normal duties.

A widespread boycott would place enormous pressure on KNEC to recruit replacements at short notice, potentially affecting the administration, supervision and marking of the examinations.

KNEC's funding challenge

The dispute has also exposed the financial pressures facing the examinations council.

According to the Auditor-General's report, KNEC required approximately Sh12.7 billion to administer the 2025 national examination cycle but received substantially less from the Exchequer, creating a multi-billion-shilling funding gap.

The report further showed that the council's liabilities exceeded its assets, highlighting broader financial constraints that have affected timely payment of contracted professionals.

What happens next?

The unions have maintained that the government still has time to avert disruption by settling the outstanding allowances before preparations for the 2026 KCSE examinations enter their final phase.

For now, candidates continue with preparations, but unless the dispute is resolved in the coming weeks, the administration of this year's examinations could become the latest casualty of the long-running standoff over unpaid examination dues.