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Row deepens over Wilson Sossion’s ‘ouster’

Kenya National Union of Teachers Secretary-General Wilson Sossion addresses a news conference at their head office in Nairobi on April 26, 2018. Leadership wrangles within Knut has intensified PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

By  OUMA WANZALA

What you need to know:

  • NEC declared deputy secretary-general Hesborne Otieno Mr Sossion’s replacement during a meeting held at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development.

  • Mr Sossion insisted he was still the boss as “no vote has taken place after the meeting aborted”.

  • After the NEC meeting, Mr Sossion went on to preside over another Knut meeting of the National Advisory Council, which approved his stay.

Leadership wrangles within the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) intensified on Monday after the National Executive Council (NEC) said it voted to oust secretary-general Wilson Sossion who immediately dismissed the decision.

NEC declared deputy secretary-general Hesborne Otieno Mr Sossion’s replacement during a meeting held at the Kenya Institute of Curriculum Development. Mr Sossion insisted he was still the boss as “no vote has taken place after the meeting aborted”.

“We had a successful NEC meeting that was attended by 33 out of 41 members. Twenty-six members voted for the removal of Mr Sossion while two supported him and the rest abstained,” said Mr Otieno when reached for comment.

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MEETING ABORTED

However, Mr Sossion said the meeting had aborted after the issue of his removal was introduced. “The meeting aborted since a new issue was being introduced and it had not been sanctioned by my office as required by the law,” he said.

After the NEC meeting, Mr Sossion went on to preside over another Knut meeting of the National Advisory Council (NAC), which approved his stay. “NEC has no power over NAC, which has 440 members, with four members drawn from each of the 110 branches,” he said.

He insisted that the 60th annual delegates conference (ADC), which was attended by 2,000 delegates in Mombasa, allowed him to continue serving as secretary-general and ODM nominated MP.

“The work of NEC is to implement the resolutions of ADC and ADC was very clear that I hold the two positions since I represent workers in Parliament,” said Mr Sossion.

CONFRONTATION

Members of NEC and ADC who attended the meeting shared similar sentiments, but depending on which camp they are allied to.

The development sets stage for another confrontation at the Teachers Service Commission on Wednesday, where Mr Sossion has insisted he will lead the delegation to talk about teachers who have acquired higher academic qualifications.

Knut has close to 200,000 members and collects Sh1.6billion annually from the teachers as union dues.

Monday’s meeting was called by Mr Sossion in order to address the issue of delocalisation which he said had affected 82 Knut branch officials.

It was also to agree on what the union was to discuss with TSC among others performance appraisal and teacher professional development programme.

Mr Sossion was deregistered by TSC in January after he was nominated to Parliament.

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