NAIROBI, Kenya, Jun 25 – Firebrand trade unionist Wilson Sossion has resigned from his position as Secretary General of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) to focus on his political career.
Sossion made the announcement on Friday, a day ahead of elections to election new officials.
“I hereby, today, bow out of the Kenya National Union of Teachers leadership, honorably. I shall remain loyal to the union and I will always be available to advise and support the leadership of the union,” he said.
Sossion who joined the National Assembly in 2017, after he was nominated as a Member of Parliament through ODM party said he had outgrown the union.
“I have outgrown KNUT. My responsibility now shifts to Parliament,” he said in a press conference held at the Windsor Golf Hotel and Country Club.
Sossion urged the government to protect and support the union.
“I am making this passionate appeal which international unions have made in writing to the government of Kenya that it will find it necessary to allow union dues to flow to KNUT again,” he said.
During his tenure, Sossion was embroiled in a protracted battle with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) which deregistered him as a teacher after he was nominated to the National Assembly.
He accused TSC of working to cripple KNUT, and consequently hoard control of teachers’ welfare.
Sossion survived three attempts to remove him.
On Saturday, 1,876 teachers’ delegates from across the country were expected to converge in Nairobi to elect new KNUT officials.