Teachers dismiss Kaimenyi’s threat to have Sossion jailed

Teachers in the county have described as diversionary tactics threats by Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi to have Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion jailed for allegedly sending him an offensive SMS.

The teachers instead accused Prof Kaimenyi of trivialising serious matters and asked him to channel his efforts towards finding solutions to challenges facing the ministry.

Led by Knut Executive Secretary Malel Langat, the teachers said Kaimenyi's threats were aimed at intimidating the teachers not to speak out about the CS's failure to run the ministry.

"The teachers led by Sossion have raised pertinent issues that should have been addressed by the CS. Unfortunately, he did not take the advice seriously," said Mr Langat, who added that Kaimenyi was solely to blame for the mess in the education sector.

He said it had become apparent that the CS was threatened by a well-organised teachers' union and that is why he was working to destabilise it.

"Kaimenyi wants to cause disunity by targeting the union's leadership. Sossion never sent the message oi his own personal capacity but as a spokesperson of the teachers. Let it be clear that the teachers cannot be silenced and will continue pushing for their rights," he said.

Langat called on the police to return Sossion's phone immediately since they had already extracted the message they needed. The phone was confiscated by police on Thursday.