Wilson Sossion gives government 3-day ultimatum on North Eastern teachers security or face nationwide strike

Kenya: Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion has given the government a three-day ultimatum to adequately address the security concerns of North Eastern teachers.

Sossion said he would summon the National Executive Council to discuss a possible strike if the government fails to put in place concrete security measures for teachers in North Eastern.

"If the government continues to half-heartedly act over the North Eastern teachers' security concerns, the union would on Thursday summon the National Executive Council to discuss the issue of North Eastern teachers and the possibility of calling for a nationwide teachers strike to force the government to act because when one of them is injured, we are all injured.

He continued; "Unlike other cadre of government workers who work in urban centers in the region were the security situation is way better, teachers work in remote villages where their security is not guaranteed," he said.

Sossion who was accompanied by MPs Justice Kemei (Soin/Sigowet) and Alfred Keter (Nandi Hills) made the remarks during the official opening of Kebeneti secondary school in Soin/Sigowet constituency in Kericho County.

Keter compared government's attempts to literary force teachers to teach in the volatile region to "modern day slavery". He therefore said President Uhuru Kenyatta and deputy president William Ruto must demonstrate that they value the lives of the region's teachers.

"Much as the North Eastern learners have a right to education, the government should also note that the teachers in the region have a right to life because even in the bill of rights; the right to life is the number one priority because there cannot be a nation without the people because the people are the power," he said.

 

Sossion told Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that should it even proceed and hire a new batch of teachers, Knut would fight to ensure that they are employed under new terms and conditions.

"We would have to sit down with the Teachers Service Commission and agree on fundamental issues such as the duration of stay. They must also have a hotline desk at the commission for use in cases of emergency," he said.

Sossion added that he would not be intimidated from pressing for the teachers rights by verbal attacks by North Eastern leaders led the national Assembly majority leader Aden Duale who recently told Sossion to cease acting as if teachers are his personal property.

"It is unfortunate that North Eastern Kenya leaders have not come out strongly to work with the rest of the Kenyans to solve the insecurity menace in the region and I would not be intimidated by a leader who doesn't care about the lives of ordinary workers," he said.

Kemei assured teachers that they would be exempted from a bill he is drafting to cap the retirement age of civil servants at 55years.

"I recognized the fact that the country faces an acute shortage of teachers and therefore there is a clause in the draft bill that I intend to table in parliament soon which would not limit the retirement age of teachers to 55 years like other civil servants," he said.

KNUT Kericho Branch Executive Secretary Stanley Mutai pointed out that the country faces a shortage of over 80,000 teachers and asked the government to employ more teachers