By JOSEPH MUCHIRI
KENYA: A teachers’ union has expressed disappointment at the Government’s withdrawal of hardship allowances of some teachers and failure to promote others.
Kenya National Union of Teachers first national women representative Dorothy Muthoni said they could not understand why their gains of many years were being withdrawn.
“How can hardship allowance that a member has enjoyed for years just be withdrawn? There is no way you can reduce someone’s earnings as this is against the labour laws and the International Labour Organisation,” said Muthoni.
She said thousands of teachers in Meru North, Taita Taveta and Kericho had been affected by the withdrawal. She said teachers never went to Teachers Service Commission offices or the Treasury to make their payrolls as its always done on merit and thus wondered how it can be reduced.
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“We want to tell TSC we will not take this lying down, so they should reinstate the hardship allowance for the teachers.
We also demand they give the same allowance to areas that deserve but have been denied. Why should they cause tension among teachers while we are law-abiding citizens?” asked Muthoni.
She asked the commission to honour the Legal Notice No. 534 of 1997 and their structured dialogue prior to the General Election in which they agreed the Legal Notice No. 16 of 2003 be removed as it was denying teachers their allowances.
She said while they do not want to contemplate downing their tools, it appeared as if teachers would always have to go on strike for their grievances to be listened and addressed.
Muthoni also said that teachers should be promoted after getting a certain qualification and questioned why it was not being done.
