KNUT in new push for hiring more teachers

Secretary General (SG) Mr Wilson Sossion speaks at Lorraine High school in Bureti constituency. Sossion opened a new battlefront to force the jubilee administration to recruit more teachers. (PHOTO: NIKKO TANUI/ STANDARD)

After the successful Sh54 billion Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA), the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) is now pushing for recruit of more teachers.

In an apparent reference to the alleged loss of Sh5 billion in the Ministry of Health, Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said the union would force President Uhuru Kenyatta and Deputy President William Ruto to use the remaining cash to hire more teachers.

“I am ready for a new war because if the country sits back and does nothing, the corruption cartels will steal to the last coin. We are telling the nation to brace itself for a major teachers’ strike to force the government to employ more teachers,” said Mr Sossion. The country has shortage of more than 85,000 teachers.

He nonetheless assured Kenyans that if Jubilee administration fully implements the landmark CBA agreement by July 1 next year, teachers will keep off the streets for at least the next four years.

“We are working on implementation of the Collective Bargain Agreement with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). We want the money paid in one phase especially for the 100,000 teachers who will benefit on the 40 per cent and below of the agreement,” said Sossion during the official opening of Lorraine High School in Bureti constituency, yesterday.

He was accompanied by senior Knut officials led by National Executive Council official Emily Kirui and Kericho Knut branch executive secretary Daniel Chumo.

Members of County Assembly led by Speaker Japheth Mutai and Tebesonik ward representative Bracolin Suge also attended the function.

Sossion and Mr Mutai also clashed during the function over the recruitment of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers by the counties.

“According to the Constitution, the registration of teachers, management and regulation is the work of the Teachers Service Commission. The issue of Early Childhood Development Education (ECDE) teachers is just assigned to the county governments,” said Sossion.

He reminded governors that the High Court had ruled that as the ECDE teachers draw their salaries from the counties, they must be registered by TSC.

“We are now asking the counties and the Teachers Service Commission to fast-track the scheme of service framework so that the teachers can be formally registered and their terms clearly set out,” he said.

But Mutai defended Governor Paul Chepkwony’s administration which is one of the counties which had recruited hundreds of ECDE teachers, a move Sossion says usurps TSC powers. “At the inception of devolution, most of ECDE teachers were jobless and wallowing in poverty and the county government stepped in and offered them jobs,” said Mutai.