KNUT issues TSC with strike notice

The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) on Sunday issued a seven day strike notice to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) demanding a 300 per cent salary and 50 per cent responsibility allowance increments. Read (Teachers decry workers pay rise)

At a press conference in Nairobi, KNUT Secretary General David Okuta has accused TSC of failure to implement a salary and allowances increments as agreed upon with the government in 1997 through a Legal Notice 534.

"The government has been increasing salaries by bits but have ignored allowances," said Mr Okuta. “Legal Notice 534 does not need any negotiations, it now needs implementations and we are not going to negotiate on that.”

KNUT has now threatened to commence their strike on September 3, if TSC fails to respond to their demands.

"KNUT is demanding responsibility allowances at 50 per cent, 40 per cent and 30 per cent for Principals, Heads, Deputies, Senior teachers and Heads of Departments," said Okuta.

KNUT officials said the government had “ignored” the part of allowances they had to pay teachers for other duties they perform in schools apart from teaching.

"Teachers in this country have been angered by Ministries that try to trash this Legal Notice in Parliament. We would like to tell them that this Legal Notice is alive and kicking,” said Okuta. “The government has kept quiet and we have come to a conclusion that enough is enough.”

The seven-day notice, they said is supposed to give room for both the government and TSC to respond and explain, or even pay up, the allowances the teachers are demanding or else there would be no teaching at the start of third term.

“Classrooms in Kenya will be empty of teachers as from September 3,” warned Knut Chairman Wilson Sossion.

“We are also parents and we have children schools, but we must stand up for what is right. The government should not wait for teachers to go on strike,” added Sossion.