Rights group urges Govt to heed teachers' demands

A human rights group has asked the government to heed the teachers’ demands for a pay raise.

The Kenya National Commission on Human Rights (KNCHR) said the the laptop project for schools should be suspended and the teachers’ concerns dealt with first.

The striking teachers KNCHR's support Wednesday, which said that teachers had suffered for long and should now reap from years of hard work and less pay. The commission asked President Kenyatta’s government to hear the teachers’ grievances and settle them immediately.

“Successive governments have failed to prioritise this matter thereby compromising the quality of education in the country.

"Teachers remain among the most poorly remunerated professionals in this country therefore undermining their right to a decent livelihood,” said KNCHR acting chairperson Ann Kyalo at a press conference held at the commission’s offices in CVS Plaza Nairobi.

Teachers have been on strike over the last two weeks and although the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) suspended its strike on Tuesday to allow talks with government, the giant Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) insisted the strike was still on.

Ms Kyalo said the tutors; demands should be settled as lodged in the Legal Notice 534 of 1997.

“The agreement is legal and enforceable. It was properly entered into and the government has no choice but to honour it,” said KNCHR chief executive officer Patricia Nyaundi who said the 16-year-old notice should be the basis of the negotiations between the teachers and the government.

The commission asked the government to go slow on the laptop project asking for more consultations before it is rolled out.

“We are worried that the government is hell-bent on rolling out a project with colossal financial implications without having due regard to national values and principles spelt out in the Constitution,” said Ms Nyaundi.

She said the project could turn out to be another scam if thorough consultations with the education stakeholders were not held first before the roll out next January.

Last week, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi said that the laptop-per-child project will be fully implemented.

However, KNCHR said the project is shrouded in secrecy and could be another scandal in the making.

“We have lost billions of shillings through ventures such as this one that are shrouded in secrecy and lack of public participation."