The biggest teachers’ union has begun shutting down its 110 offices countrywide amid financial woes.
Office property is being auctioned because of rent arrears, Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion revealed yesterday.
The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has continued to withhold the union’s dues since last year. Knut staff have not received paid salaries and their medical insurance premiums have not been remitted for months now.
Knut has now written to Ministry of Labour and Social Protection Cabinet Secretary Simon Chelugui asking him to intervene and stop the TSC from further crippling its operations.
Mr Sossion has also asked Mr Chelugui to help the union reinstate its membership. Records at the TSC show that Knut had only 34,312 members at the end of October, down from 187,471 members in June 2019.
Mr Sossion said that, without enough members, the union is unable to organise its annual delegates’ conference this year. Last year, the union was also unable to meet due to the financial crisis.
“All these matters have remained unresolved to date and your office has gone quiet about it, whereas the TSC has continued to cripple the operations of Knut by attacking the check-off system, hence systematically and gradually diminishing the resources of the union,” said Mr Sossion in the letter dated November 9.
Mr Sossion said there has been illegal massive offloading of members from the union’s register. The union has a monthly operating budget of Sh144 million, with a monthly payroll of Sh80 million. However, last month it received only Sh25 million from the TSC.
Knut is also not receiving agency fees, which are usually shared to unions to cover for teachers who are not members.
The actions by TSC have led to wrangles in the union, crippled operations, meetings, training and programmes, with a constant clandestine messaging from TSC urging Knut to change its leadership in the office of the secretary-general for the check-off to be reinstated, said Mr Sossion.
“We have been patient for too long but not any more. The employer can never determine the secretary-general of a union by operating outside the law,” he said in his letter to Mr Chelugui, adding: “Exercise your mandate and stop the TSC from meddling with the affairs of Knut.”
The letter has been copied to Ministry of Interior and Coordination of National Government CS Fred Matiang’i, Education CS George Magoha, Head of Public Service, Office of the President and the director-general of the National Intelligence Service.
Central Organisation of Trade Unions Secretary-General Francis Atwoli, Education International General Secretary and the TSC boss Nancy Macharia, also received copies. Mr Sossion said Knut, having existent for 63 years, believes in good industrial relations.
The fights between the TSC and Knut have been going on for the past two years, with the former de-registering Mr Sossion as a teacher. However, a court ruling by Justice Maureen Onyango dismissed a petition that had been filed against Mr Sossion holding the secretary-general position.
TSC has accused Mr Sossion of fighting against the de-localisation programmes. Other contentious issues are the implementation of the Competency-Based Curriculum (CBC), the school laptop project and teachers’ rejection of the 1.5 per cent government housing project.
Knut and TSC also disagreed over the implementation of career development guidelines, promotion of teachers and the implementation of the 2016-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The fights culminated in several court cases, the withholding of Knut dues by TSC, and the de-registration of Mr Sossion.
The fights had fanned divisions in the Knut leadership, which led to Mr Sossion’s ouster and replacement with deputy secretary-general Hesbon Otieno last year, before he was reinstated by the court.
A month ago, National Assembly Speaker Justin Muturi stopped the Education committee from meddling in the affair.
“I hasten to caution that it is not in public interest that the committee revisits the long-standing suits between TSC and Knut,” said Mr Muturi.
