Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) officially announced the beginning of teachers’ strike today, a few hours after their employer returned to the Supreme Court for a review of for a review of the ruling that had upheld the 50-60% pay rise.
KNUT urged teachers to boycott teaching and called on its members to keep off class. Earlier the cabinet Secretary for the National Treasury had said the government would not implement the pay increase.
Knut leaders, after a meeting of the National Executive Council, the union’s asked teachers to boycott work until Teachers Service Commission honours the pay increase awarded by the courts.
“We are declaring the formal commencement of the strike and we are telling teachers not to go anywhere near a learning institution to teach,” KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion. “ Parents should also keep the children at home as this fight for pay continues. Government, the ball is in your court, obey the court’s orders and pay the teachers promptly.”
He said that they would not hold any talks with the government, and will not take anything less than the 50 to 60% increase awarded by the Supreme Court. “We shall not a move an inch below what was awarded and we will only resume duties when all this is delivered. We are not negotiating with the court orders,” Mr Sossion told reporters in Nairobi.
He dismissed government claims that there is no money to pay teachers. Teachers are reading “mischief” in the statement issued by Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, he said.
Treasury Principal Secretary Kamau Thugge on Tuesday wrote to Teachers Service Commission, which places the cost of the 50-60% salary increment at Ksh20.1 billion, warning of far reaching economic consequences if they pay up.
Mr Sossion accused the government of rolling out a campaign to turn the public against teachers. “The public will be a beneficiary of the teachers’ salary and therefore, the government should cease on the machineries they have formed to poison the public against teachers,” he said.
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