NAIROBI, Kenya, Jan 15 – Education Permanent Secretary Karega Mutahi is scheduled to hold crisis talks with Provincial, District, Municipal and staffing officers over the impending teachers’ strike.
A statement from the Ministry said the meeting would take place on Friday at the Kenya Institute of Education from 9 am, ahead of the nationwide strike, which is expected to begin on January 19.
On Wednesday, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) maintained that it would go ahead with its strike after the government failed to yield to their demands.
Education Minister Professor Sam Ongeri has however maintained that the government would put in place measures to ensure that learning goes on if and when the teachers down their tools.
The union is demanding a one off payment of the Sh17.1 billion increases rather than the three phases proposed by the government.
KNUT also wants the government to raise its 26 percent increase offer for lower cadres of teachers to 35 percent.
The Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has accepted the deal and called off a strike that was planned to start Thursday.
Meanwhile, teachers from the larger Laikipia district have appealed to parents whose children are in school to take them back home by the weekend, because the strike will indeed take effect.
Led by the Laikipia KNUT branch executive secretary Mureithi Kamanja, the teachers reiterated their commitment to go on with the strike until the government agrees to meet their demands.
They said parents who do not withdraw their children from school will only have themselves to blame should the students take advantage of the mass action by rioting.
Mr Kamanja said it was unfortunate that the government was using their rivals KUPPET to undermine KNUT. He spoke after a teachers’ consultative meeting for the Laikipia North, West and East districts in Nyahururu town.
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