Speaking after the KNUT National Executive Council meeting, Chairman Mudzo Nzili said teachers will push on with the strike that will Monday roll into the third week/FILE
NAIROBI, Kenya, Sep 13 – The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) says it’s not discouraged by recent remarks by President Uhuru Kenyatta that his government will not honour Court ruling to pay teachers a 50- 60 percent pay increment.
Speaking after the KNUT National Executive Council meeting, Chairman Mudzo Nzili said teachers will push on with the strike that will Monday roll into the third week.
He accused Education CS Jacob Kaimenyi and Teachers Service Commission of misleading the President on the issue.
“No one can defy a Supreme Court ruling. The ruling on Tuesday is about the legality of the strike and not the salary increase. We made history in our quest for pay increase and we are confident we will emerge victorious,” Nzili stated.
The KNUT Chairman said the teachers respected the call by Deputy President William Ruto to be patient for salary increase.
At the same time, KNUT Secretary-General Wilson Sossion directed teachers to defy sack threats by the TSC if they fail to report at their workstations and instead assemble at branch offices on Monday.
“The strike is not about teachers, it’s not about workers it is about defending the institutions of Kenya. That is why we have not started this thing; we are just warming up because it looks like there is a big conspiracy to defeat the Constitution of this country,” he said.
He said the teacher union has already cited TSC Chair, National Treasury CS Henry Rotich, Kaimenyi and AG for contempt of court adding that they would like TSC to explain to Parliament why teachers are on strike.
“Teachers are in a professional contract of service and you cannot treat them with arrogance that we are seeing and the game that TSC think they are trying to please government by writing warning letters.” Sossion continued,” We are telling the head teachers to close down the schools because it is dangerous to have students in school without teachers to take care of them, to manage them, to control them”
Sossion castigated TSC for deceiving the public by inflating the amount due to teachers to Sh91 billion and clarified that TSC has Sh9.4 billion of Sh17 billion needed to settle the payout going back four year.
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