Teachers teaching in public schools in Kenya have vowed to go on strike in September for higher pay in protest of the government’s failure to honour the second phase of the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) that was to take effect this July.
As last‐minute negotiations between their employer, the Teacher Service Commission( TSC), and the National Assembly’s departmental committees on Education and Research and that of Budget and Appropriations following their budget cut from Ksh357,773,737,118 to Ksh347,492,589,260 appeared futile, the two major country’s teacher unions Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) are now working out plans for the strike.
TSC had its budget slashed following the withdrawal of the contentious Finance Bill 2024 late in June, and according to Knut Secretary General Collins Oyuu, that violated the CBA:
> TSC Should Have Representation From Teachers – Orengo
“The CBA in question is a legal and binding document which was signed between TSC and KNUT in 2021 and rightly deposited in the Employment and Labour Relations Court — hence, there is no way the National Treasury, which is fully aware of the existence and content of the Agreement, can backtrack on the CBA by failing to fund adequately the TSC to meet its contractual obligations as regards implementing 2021/2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement,” Mr Oyuu said.
He said, however, that, right now, the government has no option but to sufficiently fund TSC because the CBA was negotiated and signed in 2021 and has long failed to act on it.
“The implementation of the 2021/2025 teachers’ CBA should not whatsoever be tied to Finance Bill 2024 nor Appropriation Bill 2024 as the TSC/KNUT Agreement was negotiated and signed in 2021, reviewed in 2023, and appropriately factored in the 2021/2025 contractual spendings of the National Government. Thus, the National Treasury has zero option but to fund TSC adequately to meet its financial obligations.”
Aside from staging the strike due to budget cuts, Knut and KUPPET want the government to rightfully fulfil its promise of hiring 20,000 new teachers and employing Junior Secondary School (JSS) tutors on permanent and pensionable terms.
If the government fails to reach an agreement with teachers to call off the work stoppage, millions of learners who are enrolled in the public school system will be affected as they will be reopening for their third term studies that September.
