Kaimenyi, unions' contests hurting education sector

NAIROBI: Against advice from the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) that new school regulations should not be gazetted pending a review by the Attorney General, the Law Reform Commission and the CIC, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi last week went ahead and gazetted the regulations.

And predictably, the gazettement has rubbed teachers' unions (Knut and Kuppet) the wrong way, prompting them to threaten a strike when schools open in May. They want Prof Kaimenyi to revoke the regulations. In these regulations, the Cabinet secretary can hire and fire teachers, a duty that was previously carried out by the Teachers Service Commission. While there are many other provisions that are beneficial to the country's academic development, teachers' unions only seem aggrieved by the directive that head teachers account to the Cabinet secretary.