Pay us, former intern teachers now demand
Junior Secondary School teachers during a past protest in Kakamega town to demand better terms of employment for interns.
What you need to know:
- The teachers have formed an association to agitate for their rights as they seek representation in either the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) or the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet). They are yet to join either of the unions.
- The teachers accused the two lobbies of barring them from participating fairly in their activities so that their grievances could be heard and addressed.
The 46,000 junior school teachers (JSS) teachers, who were recently converted from interns to permanent and pensionable staff, are now demanding to be compensated for the time they served in internship.
The teachers have formed an association to agitate for their rights as they seek representation in either the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) or the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet). They are yet to join either of the unions.
The teachers accused the two lobbies of barring them from participating fairly in their activities so that their grievances could be heard and addressed.
The national chairperson and spokesperson of the Kenya Junior School Teachers Association (Kejusta), Omari Omari, said after their conversion from interns to permanent and pensionable employees, several issues remained unresolved.
The teachers were permanently employed in November by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
“We celebrate the recruitment, but several issues remain unaddressed. Key among them is the deliberate obstruction by the existing unions for us to participate fairly in the union activities so that our grievances can be heard and addressed,” Mr Omari said on Monday.
He said failure by the existing teacher unions to offer equitable representation for the JSS teachers would be an injustice.
“The future of the young teachers’ activism is uncertain; but what is certain is that even as we ebb and flow, we will not be stopped,” said Mr Omari.
He praised President William Ruto for the investments he has made in the education sector, especially in the recruitment of teachers to bridge the gap.
“He has hired a whopping 46,000 teachers, the highest one-off recruitment in the history of the country. Even with the many negatives being painted all over, this is a major achievement that should be celebrated,” he added.
However, Mr Omari said the recruitment was not served on a silver platter, or due to pressure from teacher unions or opposition leaders.
“With no union protection, we took to the streets to fight against what we felt was an injustice. We won, albeit with a lot of intimidation and loss of two years served unfairly as interns. Currently, our demands have changed to compensation for the time we served in internship. The slogan is’ Seek ye first the job group kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you’” he said.
On December 10, during the Knut delegate’s conference in Mombasa, the JSS teachers demanded positions in the giant union.
Mr Omari urged Knut to allow them to join the union, with a demand that at least 500 positions be reserved for them nationwide.
“As JSS teachers, we have faced numerous challenges that remained unresolved due to the lack of union representation. We were advised to form or join a union to effectively voice our concerns. While we have the option to join Kuppet or Knut, we have specific demands that need to be addressed,” said Mr Omari.
Knut Secretary-General, Collins Oyuu, asked them to be patient as their demands will be discussed.
