University staffers have faulted President William Ruto for excluding university unions in the 42-member education reform taskforce.
The Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu), through its secretary general Charles Mukhwaya, said President Ruto got it wrong by forming a team excluding university unions to steer extensive education reforms.
He said the President has started fulfilling his education promises on a wrong footing and ought to have involved the unions like KUSU, KUPPET, UASU, KUDHIEHA and KNUT which are within the education sector.
“As a union we want to remind President Ruto that there is no way he can form such a team to address matters education and leave out key stakeholders like Kusu,” said Dr Mukhwaya.
He added: “As a union, we feel the government of President Ruto did not do any due diligence. The government did not respect the constitution of Kenya. The constitution is very clear on stakeholders and public participation. We as key stakeholders in education did expect that unions within the education sector will be represented in the task force however none was in the task force.”
Although the President has given the task force powers to co-opt other persons, who possess appropriate competencies, as it may consider necessary, Dr Mukhwaya said the deliberate leaving out of unions within the education sector was suspect.
“In the absence of key union members like KUSU in the team, the union is worried that their grievances will not be well articulated,” said Dr Mukhwaya.
“As a union, we're still questioning the rationale of living the union out. You never know if somebody in the team can propose some crazy recommendations affecting our members since major stakeholders like KUSU are not involved. That is our major worry and as a union, we don't know the fate of the report that will come out of the task force,” said Dr Mukhwaya.
Interestingly, the task force that will be chaired by Prof Raphael Munavu, a renowned educationist and lecturer, comprises university vice-chancellors, lecturers, and teachers in public schools and special needs schools.
Other members include private schools, colleges, faith-based organizations, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), the Kenya National Examination Council (KNEC), the Ministry of Education and other stakeholders.
Dr Mukhwaya said that the inclusion of the VCs in the task force was appropriate but said some of them have been involved in the mismanagement of the public universities.
“Including VCs who have mismanaged public universities in this taskforce team can put doubt whether they will make key and meaningful contributions to the team,” he said.
He also warned that if the final report will not be fair to Kusu members they will challenge it in a court of law.
However, he said despite exclusion, the union is ready to give out its views to the team.
