Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi Thursday sent the controversial school regulations to the National Assembly, opening the door for MPs to address the concerns of teachers' unions and parents regarding the impending strike.
Majority Leader Aden Duale (Garissa Township) tabled the regulations in the House ending the anger of MPs that they had been ignored in the approval of the regulations. The Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso directed the Committee on Delegated Legislation to look at the regulations.
"I want to confirm that the committee had not considered these regulations. Now that they have been tabled, we shall now sit and consider the regulations," said William Cheptumo, the Chairman of the Committee on Delegated Legislation.
Cheptumo called for calm and insisted that his committee will address all concerns from the Kenya National Union of Teachers, Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers and the Teachers Service Commission.
"There should be no cause for alarm, we are going to ensure all issues raised by Kenyans are addressed to their satisfaction," said Cheptumo.
He said it was not illegal for Kaimenyi to publish the regulations, because under the law, the Cabinet secretary is required to submit the rules within seven days of publication, and the days had not expired.
MPs waded into the controversy over the new rules on Wednesday with a call to Deputy Speaker Joyce Laboso to declare the rules illegal.
The chairperson of the National Assembly's Committee on Education Sabina Chege said her committee had not seen the regulations, but will not accept the stand-off to lead to a strike.
"Watching and listening to the tone of the Cabinet secretary regarding the regulations, I don't think he is helping deal with the situation. We need to make sure that second term resumes with no fights or strikes," said Chege.