Why Sossion had to eat humble pie

ILLUSTRATION | J NYAGAH  NATION MEDIA GROUP

By JUSTUS WANGA jwanga@ke.nationmedia.com
Posted  Saturday, July 20  2013 at  18:35

A memorable image that adorns a number of matatus and barber shops is that of a man who climbs a tree by a river bank to escape a lion. To his horror, he notices a snake on one of the branches getting ready to strike. It is not safe in the water either as a hungry crocodile awaits to make a meal of him if he jumps in.

No image could have better portrayed the predicament faced by Mr Wilson Sossion, the combative secretary-general of the giant Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) in the dying days of the three-week strike that brought learning in public schools to a standstill.

Mr Sossion’s predicament has not been about lions, snakes or crocodiles; it has been about the courts, teachers, learners and the Jubilee government.

The Bomet-born biology and agriculture teacher started out with daredevil bravery, reinforced by an army of 240,000 angry and hungry teachers.

Weeping children

However, a jail threat, pictures of weeping children on the front pages of newspapers, restless and impatient parents and an iron-fisted employer who withheld teachers’ salaries, conspired to subdue and mellow the man even as he put on a brave face and urged his troops on.

Unknown to many, as the contempt of court case which carried the possibility of a six-month jail term hung over his head, Mr Sossion was reportedly willing to call off the strike as early as a week ago, but feared a backlash from the teachers whose hopes he had lifted sky high.

Last Sunday, when many expected him to lead the union in calling off the strike, he resorted to diverting attention by parading teachers’ representatives from across the country and making them express their feelings on the way the government was handling the issue.

When the time to call off the strike finally came on Tuesday, an hour after Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi had ordered schools closed, Mr Sossion was hard pressed to enumerate the fruits of the strike.

The government had agreed to harmonise commuter allowances — ranging from Sh2,900 and Sh11, 000 — in two phases. The other allowances would be discussed with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission.

“Such weighty decisions can only be made by the National Executive Council and not two or three officials, and it is through a vote,” he said, appearing to pass the message that the strike was not about his ego but the welfare of teachers.

It is called finding oneself between a rock and a hard place. While this was going on, teachers were looking up to Knut to stay put until they got the salary increment and allowances they wanted.

Should I disobey the courts and listen to teachers who are my employers? Mr Sossion must have been asking himself. But at what cost? he must again have asked himself.

But he says teachers are not as disappointed as people would think.

“The teachers are happy. They appreciate what we have achieved, but we will press on if conditions demand,” he says.

“Normally, it is with a heavy heart that Knut resorts to strikes because we never want to harm the innocent child, but unfortunately that is the language most governments understand,” he told Sunday Nation.

He assured parents that teachers would make up for the lost time.

“Performance is always even when teachers go on strike, they are a creative lot and always find ways of making up for the lost time,” he said.

That he comes from the same region as Deputy President William Ruto also meant that he would be viewed as “betraying their son”.

He dismisses this argument.

“All of us come from some ethnic region, but you must have realised that Knut is a very professional body and never at any point did I look at Knut with Rift Valley lenses but always as a Kenyan. Any engagement with the Presidency, if there was any, was purely institutional and Constitutional at the same time,” he said.

Mr Sossion has broken a record. He has been at the helm of Knut for three years, during which the union has staged three strikes.

“I am the policy director at Knut. And if anything I’m only playing my role, and I will keep doing the same whenever conditions demand,” he said.

Steadfast with him in the struggle has been secretary-general Madzu Nzili who succeeded Mr Okuta Osiany, a fiery trade unionist who died in April this year.

As things stand, one can only wait to see how long the restive union takes before calling on members to down their chalk again, given the fact that their original demands have not been met.