NAIROBI, Kenya, Sept 9 – The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) on Sunday defied government’s directive to end strike and vowed to continue the boycott.
KNUT Chairman Wilson Sossion asked teachers not to report to work on Monday but instead congregate at their respective KNUT branches for prayers.
KUPPET Secretary General Akelo Misori said the strike would go on unless the government increased their salaries by 100 percent as demanded/FILE
“I am not sure whether government has really read between the lines, it looks like the government is continuing not to read between the lines and we would like to say the week which has ended was just but a rehearsal for the real strike. We are now getting into the phase of the major strike and major action,” he said while revealing that retired teachers could join in the strike in the coming week.
KUPPET Secretary General Akelo Misori said the strike would go on unless the government increased their salaries by 100 percent as demanded.
“We are not employees of any ministry of this country. Teachers are employees of the Teacher’s Service Commission. We are not going to listen to a rogue minister who chooses to engage the teachers through the press. We are asking our teachers to stay put and not to be intimidated,” Misori said.
“This is a country of animal farm, 300 percent of a teacher earning Sh10,000 will only translate to Sh30,000. Members of Parliament are earning over Sh850,000 and they call it peanuts so what we are earning is simsim, you need a microscope and a hand lens to see it,” Sossion said.
KNUT on the other hand said their demands of 300 percent salary increment agreed in 1997 and harmonisation of teachers’ salary with that of civil servants remain and must be fully implemented.
“This is a country of animal farm, 300 percent of a teacher earning Sh10,000 will only translate to Sh30,000. Members of Parliament are earning over Sh850,000 and they call it peanuts so what we are earning is simsim, you need a microscope and a hand lens to see it,” Sossion said.
While regretting the move by government to threaten teachers with dismissal if they do not report back to work by Monday, Sossion said the union has been willing to engage in negotiations but the government has not been honest.
“A strike is meant to alert the government to come and handle a problem, it is not meant to alert the government to engage in intimidation. We cannot be at the negotiating table and at the same time issuing threats. It doesn’t work that way, therefore the government is approaching this matter quite casually,” he added.
On Friday the Industrial Court ruled that the strike called by the teachers was unprotected.
Justice Maureen Onyango extended orders restraining teachers unions and their embers from taking part in, calling, instigating or inciting others to take part in an unprotected strike until the final determination of the dispute.
She ordered that teachers report back to work immediately and that no protection would be extended to any employee who continued to take part in the unprotected strike after last Friday.
“We have not been served so far with any orders and even if we were to be served, we will not call off the strike,” Sossion remained adamant.
“Teachers will continue striking and they will continue demonstrating. These are the rights granted to us by our Constitution and we shall exercise those provisions to the fullest without any fear,” he maintained. “We are telling the government, it is its business now to ensure that the stalemate is unlocked and it should stop engaging in meaningless propaganda.”
“We have not been served so far with any orders and even if we were to be served, we will not call off the strike,” Sossion remained adamant.
The Ministry of Education on Saturday termed the teachers demands as unsustainable claiming the salary demands by KNUT alone amounted to Sh460billion annually, which the Minister Mutula Kilonzo said was almost half of the total national budget.
But the teachers termed this allegation as government propaganda.
“It is a gross misrepresentation of facts to tell the public that teachers are demanding a whooping half a trillion when the fact is that the unions demands amount to a meagre Sh45billion against a national annual budget of Sh1.4trillion,” stated KNUT acting Secretary General Xavier Nyamu adding that this is just about 0.03 percent of the national budget.
Meanwhile the Head of the Anglican Church of Kenya Archbishop Eliud Wabukala called on the government to commit itself to providing a solution to the on-going teachers strike and bring it to an end.
Wabukala asked the government to engage in dialogue rather than issue threats terming the teachers demands as genuine.
“As a church we want to appeal to all parties concerned in this industrial unrest especially the government, to give commitment to address what the teachers are asking because we are looking at the bigger picture which is the nation of Kenya,” Wabukala stated.
Speaking after a Sunday service at the All Saints Cathedral in Nairobi, Wabukala also called on teachers to be tolerant and accept negotiations with the government, fearing that if the strike continued, students sitting for their national examinations would be adversely affected.
“Let us pursue that which is just, let us ask for tolerance and dialogue which is genuine and that the teachers approach it with understanding because they are parents in this country,” the Archbishop said.
Teachers have been out of class for the past one week.
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