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Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has issued demands to teachers’ employer Teachers Service Commission (TSC) that should be met withing 22 days to avoid disruption of school programs come January.

On Monday, Knut demanded the end of centralised procurement of course books, a stop to teachers delocalisation and for headteachers to be allowed to join the union.

It called for the suspension of the National Education Management Information System (Nemis) launched in 2017.

The union also wants teachers who work extra hours to be paid overtime allowance.

Speaking in Mombasa, the union’s top leadership said the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and Ministry of Education should resolve their grievances before Christmas.

The officials said the State had failed to implement plans that would facilitate seamless rollout of the Competence Based Curriculum.

“TSC should hold a meeting with teachers’ representative before Christmas to avoid disruption of school programmes in January,” said Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion.

Nemis, a web-based system that captures the details of students, teaching and non-teaching staff, aims to address issues of transparency and accountability in funding of schools.

Headteachers meeting in Mombasa said the system was being exploited by bureaucrats out to frustrate teachers by delaying the disbursement of the capitation grants.

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A section of KNUT officials on Thursday stormed the union’s headquarters and demanded the removal of Secretary General, Wilson Sossion.

The situation, which was getting out of hand, had to be managed by the police, who fired teargas canisters the teachers.

The police later tried to calm the situation in the area.

During a press conference held on Wednesday by Sossion, he directed that the union offices would be closed from August 28 to September 23.

He went ahead and postponed KNUT’s NEC meeting that was supposed to be scheduled for Thursday. 

” Within my power as secretary general given by the constitution, I did postpone the NEC meeting,” Sossion stated.

 The KNUT boss also announced that he would only step aside if voted out by delegates.

“I’m not quitting…I’m not quitting…and I cannot be removed. Forget about it, no matter how much money they use, I am not on trial. I will only go home if the delegates say so,” he remarked.

Below is the video courtesy of Daily Nation;

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Details have emerged of some 90,000 teachers who have pulled out of the Wilson Sossion-led Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).

This follows an ongoing tiff between the union and the teachers’ employer, TSC.

According to the Standard, the fear of being locked out of the ongoing promotions and the looming deduction to recover monies paid to KNUT members following implementation of Collective Bargaining Agreement two years ago is behind the mass exit.

The local daily further understands that the matter has further been complicated by primary school heads, who lead institutions with majority membership of Knut, disowning the union’s push to fight for them, further isolating the union.

Secondary school heads and the rival Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have openly sided with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), casting Knut as a lone ranger in championing teachers’ issues.

According to Sources within Knut leadership ranks who spoke to the daily on Saturday, the likelihood that TSC may not honour any meetings with the Knut leadership to push for teachers’ benefits has further driven away members.

The tutors’ employer deregistered Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion from the teachers’ roll, arguing that the teachers’ code of conduct and ethics required them to maintain political neutrality at all times and not act in a manner that may compromise or be perceived to compromise their neutrality.

The decision to strike Sossion off the roll has split Knut leadership down the middle, with a crisis meeting called last week to plan for his ouster in the special National Executive Council (NEC) meeting postponed to next Thursday.

“We are in a tight corner as a union because we are unable to even run operations at the branches. But we have one last chance to rescue the union from collapse this week during the NEC meeting,” said a high-ranking Knut official.

The number of members who have exited Knut could be higher as more teachers continue to exit the union citing stalled benefits of the Third Phase of the Sh54 billion Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Last month, TSC ran a parallel payroll, locking out all the 190,000 Knut members from the benefits of the CBA signed in 2016.

TSC said it was complying with an order issued by Judge Byram Ongaya that set aside Career Progression Guidelines rolled out in 2017 and reverted to the old Schemes of Service to guide promotions of all teachers under its payroll.

The Commission adopted career progression guidelines in 2017 to enable the implementation of the job evaluation exercise and the CBA that were signed in 2016.

It also emerged that the impending recovery of the monies already paid to Knut members after implementation of the 2016 CBA has further necessitated the mass exit.

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Kenya National Union of Teachers’ (KNUT) top leadership has demanded an urgent special meeting accusing its secretary general Wilson Sossion of complacency and insensitivity even as the union is faced with a serious financial crisis. .

They said they want to discuss issues affecting the union such as allowances and withdrawal of members.

In a letter to Sossion, eight NEC members threatened to convene a meeting if he fails to convene one within the next seven days.

They are Michael Muna, Bashir Odowa, Anne Njoroge, Emily Mito, Modesta Akaki, John Karanu, Javan Wachira and Warda Mohammed.

“We the undersigned being bona fide members of the union and NEC members, and acting in accordance with the law and the constitution of KNUT article VIII part (B) section 2&3, together with all the enabling provisions of the laws of Kenya, do hereby write to requisition an urgent and special NEC meeting within the next seven days to discuss the current state of the union,” the letter reads.

“Please be informed that in the absence of appropriate action on this request, we shall proceed to conduct our request as shall be deemed in accordance with the by-laws of the union and the labour laws of Kenya.”

The NEC members who were hosted by the Kiambu West Knut branch secretary Michael Muna in Limuru town on Monday said unless urgent measures are taken, members are likely to leave it in droves.

Muna said the Teachers Service Commission was all set to kill the giant union, adding that Sossion was not doing enough to salvage the situation.

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