Don’t punish workers for exercising right to strike

By Johnstone Muthama

Kenya: Many Kenyans have watched with dismay and disappointment the way the Government has been addressing the crisis caused by the recent teachers’ strike.

Government’s handling of the teachers’ strike was a test of democracy and brought into focus the question of workers’ access to justice and constitutional rights.

That President Uhuru Kenyatta had to directly intervene to resolve the matter demonstrates that there is something seriously wrong with the way senior Government officials have been carrying out their responsibility regarding the long-running teachers’ grievances.

The manner in which the teachers’ strike was handled exposed a great challenge on the authorities’ ability to deal with issues that could lead to industrial unrest in the country, generating further action from other sectors, which in turn can paralyse the economy.

It is ironic that since teachers started agitating for improved pay in 1997, 16 years later, their genuine demands and rights have been treated with high-handedness bordering on contempt for members of this noble profession.

Instead of seeking an amicable solution to the matter and alleviate a national catastrophe in the public education sector, the Government officials resorted to high-handed and casual means to disown legal notices and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) made with teachers.

Public service employees’ grievances, be they in the education or health sectors, cannot be solved through intimidation, threats or merely going to court. The Government must adopt a humble approach in negotiating with its employees without resorting to hard-line conditions and a casual approach to genuine workers’ grievances.

The tendency to adopt such an attitude in dealing with workers’ genuine grievances could lead to an unmitigated disaster in the labour sector. The President, Deputy President and the Cabinet have a constitutional obligation to deal with matters related to workers’ rights urgently, and resolve them once and for all humanely, through constructive dialogue.

It elicits great national concern when civil servants, university lecturers, doctors and nurses keep on agitating for their rights while seeking the implementation of agreements reached with the Government. Such antagonism greatly undermines democracy, jeopardises the gains of the Constitution and harms the national economy. Every Kenyan has the constitutional right to make a choice of what they want and to reject what they don’t. Teachers cannot be expected to work under conditions totally unacceptable to them.

Kenyans have witnessed with alarm senior State officers and the people’s elected representatives demanding and getting higher pay, oblivious to the plight of millions of other workers, millions of unemployed youth and other suffering Kenyans.

Public service workers cannot be held captive to what they do not want in contravention of legally binding agreements, as this attitude amounts to slavery. We are all children of this country, with equal rights to its resources and the national cake.

The Jubilee Government must abide by its word to be prudent in spending taxpayers’ money and national resources, rather than on lavish projects and expensive lobbying trips. This is not the justice that Kenyans yearn for as enshrined in the Constitution.

Kenyans are not ready to condone impunity and paying lip service to reform, making promises that can’t be fulfilled, high-handed actions or the imposition of undemocratic norms. Are we telling teachers and other public service workers that they have no freedom of speech or choice, and that some Kenyans are more equal than them?

Even if these workers, who provide a vital service to the citizens of this country (including children that hold the future of this nation), are threatened, intimidated and harassed, many Kenyans are standing with them and will support them with the Constitution as their shield and defender.

Democratic citizens and leaders are not prepared to let the workers’ rights be trampled upon, and will ensure that, however long it takes, they will eventually get justice and their rightful dues. Teachers, public servants and all workers are all Kenyan citizens, with equal rights to share the national cake. Let us remember Martin Luther King Jr’s words: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

The writer is Machakos Senator and Senate Minority Chief Whip