'Goons’ disrupt Teachers Pressure Group meeting in Nairobi
Teachers Pressure Group members during their meeting in Nairobi on November 19, 2021.
A meeting by Teachers Pressure Group (TPG) in Nairobi was on Friday disrupted by people who claimed they had been instructed to stop the assembly.
The group of about five men clad in T-Shirts resembling the ones the members of the TPG were wearing, entered the Professional Centre near Parliament Building, Nairobi, and ordered the teachers to disperse.
The five claimed that they had been sent by a “Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) official,” to disperse the teachers.
“This meeting must end now, this business has to stop immediately,” shouted the leader of the group as he grabbed the TPG’s banner.
The men, whom the teachers described as ‘hired goons’ escaped on boda bodas.
The TPG members accused the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Knut of intimidation.
“The men were hired to disrupt our meeting, they were sent to cause chaos so that they can blame it on us,” said a teacher who had attended the presser.
Teacher transfers
The teachers also accused Knut Secretary-General Collins Oyuu of masterminding their transfers to silence them.
The teachers, all clad with black T-Shirts printed “resist TPD”, had planned to hold demonstrations against the recently launched Teacher Professional Development (TPD) that required them to undergo training during school’s holidays.
According to TSC, teachers will be required to pay Sh6,000 annually and also renew their teaching license after every five years. Speaking to Nation.Africa on Friday, Mr Oyuu denied initiating any transfer of teachers.
“It is wrong to malign this office (Knut), what is the need of me to send people to go and disrupt a meeting I knew nothing about, I have no business in engaging in such sideshows,” Mr Oyuu said.
He said transfer of teachers is purely a TSC mandate and has nothing to do with it.
Transferring teachers
“Those teachers should follow the right channel to air their views, as a union and as the SG of Knut I am always ready to engage the employer on issues of teachers. But I cannot fight for teachers who are going everywhere in the media and the social media showing disrespect to the employer,” said Mr Oyuu.
He added: “If a teacher cannot be controlled by the employer then how do I engage the employer on their behalf, the TSC has always been transferring teachers. If anyone feels his or her transfer is punitive, they should approach Knut and we shall take up the matter with TSC.”
Mr Oyuu said teachers need to seek proper advice on how to address their issues since revolting against the employer could cause them harm.
“A year ago, we lost some 245 teachers through interdiction after they failed to consider advice and instead went ahead to protest against the Competency Based-Curriculum (CBC), some of them are now regretting,” said Mr Oyuu.
He said that as of Friday, none of the transferred teachers had reported to him nor sought help from the union.
“That group is not registered and therefore they do not represent teachers, let all teachers come to us for help. I cannot speak for people who have not reached out to us,” he said.
