Teachers union chiefs face fresh jail threat

Two top officials of the teachers’ union face a fresh threat of being jailed after a judge allowed a new contempt suit against them.

Industrial Court judge Linet Ndolo on Wednesday allowed the Teachers Service Commission, which had withdrawn the contempt proceedings against the union officials on Tuesday, to file a new suit against Mr Wilson Sossion and Mr Mudzo Nzili.

“TSC is hereby granted leave to file and serve contempt proceedings against Mr Sossion and Mr Nzili as requested,” said Lady Justice Ndolo.

Senior state counsel Njoroge Mwangi accused the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) officials of going against the “good gesture exhibited by the commission” to withdraw the contempt application, expecting that the two would call off the ongoing teachers’ strike by Wednesday.

“We have decided to file a fresh contempt of court proceeding because Mr Sossion and Mr Nzili have completely refused to comply with the orders of this court directing them to call off the strike by the morning of July 2. We had expected they will comply by today after we served them afresh on Monday afternoon,” said Mr Mwangi.

Lady Justice Ndolo certified the application urgent and directed that the matter be mentioned on Monday.

Lawyer Chacha Odera, who came on record for Knut, was served with the contempt of court application on behalf of Mr Sossion and Mr Nzili.

The court directed him to file a response to the application by Friday.

The court is also expected to receive a report from the Labour Cabinet Secretary, TSC, Salaries and Remuneration Commission and Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers on the progress of negotiations as directed by the judge on July 1, when the orders stopping the strike were issued.

The judge had ordered that any strike beyond July 1, shall not be protected.