Strike to end as Knut calls crisis meeting

All is set for end to teachers’ strike as Knut top organ meets

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has called its National Executive Committee with the clearest indication that they would call off the nationwide teachers’ strike.

Knut chairman Wilson Sossion on Saturday confirmed that NEC members were expected in Nairobi to decide on the way forward. Mr Sossion said the union leaders and the government have been engaged in “tough negotiations” whose outcome they hope would be positive.

“We shall constitute the National Executive Committee tomorrow (Sunday) to present to them a new offer from the government,” Mr Sossion said.

And with the contempt of court proceedings hanging over their heads, the Knut top officials now appear ready to step down from their hard line stance.
Sources among the union leadership said they did not wish to be seen to be presiding over anarchy by disobeying court orders.

Mr Sossion also confirmed that the Knut leadership will be in court on Monday to for thecontempt of court proceedings filed by their employer, the Teachers Service Commission.

TSC went to court after Knut refused to call off the strike. However, the Court temporarily suspended the contempt of court proceedings against Knut leadership last week to enable them call their members spread across the country to call off the strike.

The new offer reduces the phasing out of the commuter allowance. Kenya Union of Post-Primary Teachers (Kuppet) last week signed a Sh16.2 billion deal for commuter allowance that would be paid in three phases until 2015. According to the deal, by the end of the third phase the lowest paid teacher, those in job group G would earn Sh4,000 while the highest paid in job group P would get Sh16,000 in commuter allowances.

“There have been tough negotiations going on. Eventually the strike cannot go on forever. I cannot tell you when (we will call it off). We have structures and organs that take decisions,” said Mr Sossion.

However, Knut has rejected proposals by government to re-allocate the Sh3 billion for hiring new teachers this year to pay their allowances. The union leadership said such a move would set a bad precedence.

“The NEC would consider the offer from the government,” said Mr Sossion.

The Knut chairman spoke as TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni also expressed optimism that the teachers would heed the government’s plea to end the three-weeks strike.

“The government is looking at other demands that have not been addressed in the current offer which will be addressed in subsequent budgets. We appeal to the union to call off the strike so that learning can resume. We are going to honour all the promises we have made to the teachers,” said Mr Lengoiboni.

The TSC boss said the government had gone out of its way to allocate Sh16.2 billion to teachers for the commuter allowances.

Kuppet leaders accepted the offer and have asked their members to resume classes. But Knut insisted that the offer be reviewed before they could call off the strike.

Among the conditions, Mr Sossion had said, the offer by the government should be paid to teachers in a “single phase or at worst, two phases”.

The teachers went on strike three weeks ago after the government failed to factor in allocations for their allowances that were negotiated in 1997.

Mr Sossion said the teachers were against being treated like slaves by the government, adding that they, too, were concerned with the interest of the child.

“We are fighting against servitude by a government that would want us to offer free services. Yes, we value the children but now we are on strike children are safe at home with their parents,” said Mr Sossion.

President Uhuru Kenyatta had on Friday turned down suggestions that the funds allocated for laptops, a key Jubilee coalition election pledge, be diverted to pay the teachers.

The president who spoke when he met editors from all the country’s media houses said Kenya’s wage bill was too high to accommodate significant pay increases.

There is also fear that granting the teachers their demands could reverberate negatively in the country and motivate other public officers to demand similar increases.

But Mr Sossion said the ripple effect in other sectors would be good. “All other sectors have relied on the success of the teachers. If teachers fail, the other sectors will not survive and if teachers succeed then the other sectors will survive. In fact all salaries and adjustment of benefits for other public servants have always been after successful negotiations by teachers,” said Mr Sossion.