Government threatens to auction Knut building over strike

Updated Saturday, July 6th 2013 at 21:02 GMT +3

By AUGUSTINE ODUOR

NAIROBI, KENYA: The Government now wants to auction Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) building that houses union’s main operations in Nairobi for failing to comply with a court order directing teachers to call off strike.

Teachers Service Commission ( TSC) has also asked the court to attach all immovable assets of the union including land and buildings if the union top officials fail to pay a Sh20 million fine.

This is the latest fence the Government has put on the way of the giant teachers’ union in a bid to make them call off the strike and restore learning in all public schools.

Knut has, however, warned the Government against any such attempt.

“We have not seen any court order. Let them bring it and we shall ask the union national Executive Council for advise,” said acting Secretary General Mudzo Nzili.

In its application filed at the industrial court last week, TSC requested that the court allows it to commence contempt proceedings seeking to commit union officials to civil jail for disobeying the court order issued on July 1.

While ruling on the strike dispute, Justice Linet Ndolo ordered the teachers to resume duty by Monday 8am last week and warned that those who fail to heed the order risked being sacked.

The state argued that the demands by Knut on legal notice 534 of 1997 had been fully paid under another agreement gazzetted in 2003.

The teachers’ employer also wants to specifically restrain Nzili and union national chairman Wilson Sossion from engaging in “any activities that may intensify the strike.”

The two officials have been at the forefront in calling teachers to stay away from schools for as long as the Government has not met the union’s demands.  Kenya Union of Post Primary EducationTeachers ( Kuppet) has already signed a return to work formula with the employer committing to start fresh dialogue that will culminate into CBA.

TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni said only Kuppet members will get their June salaries paid because they heeded the court order.

Court order

He said other teachers who will comply with the court order would also get their pay. But he warned that Knut members would not benefit from the offer until they call off strike.

In addition to this, Lengoiboni said he has instructedschool heads to take morning and evening roll calls to ascertain those who have defied court order.

The heads have been instructed to send the list of “disobedient” teachers to TSC County Directors who will subsequently forward the names to head office for disciplinary action.

And to ensure teachers are back in school, Lengoiboni asked: “The Government will provide security to all teachers to enable them perform their duties as required,” he said, adding that “anybody who attempts to disrupt learning or prevent any teacher from performing his or her duty will be prosecuted in accordance with the law.”

With these arrangements in place, Lengoiboni noted that all heads of institutions who released studentsfor the mid-term break should recall them. Lengoiboni said teachers who will have failed to report to work will be interdicted through the internal discipline mechanism.

This means that Knut members who will have missed classes for consecutive 14 days will face the sack.

But Knut top officials have maintained that the strike will proceed.

Nzili and Sossion said teachers are clear on what they want and noted that they will not be diverted fromachieving their goal.