Teachers strike shuts down public schools

Many schools across the country were on Tuesday shut down by a teachers’ strike called to pressure the government to recruit an additional 28,000 teachers.

The strike does not affect private schools. In Nairobi, the Kenya National Union of Teachers said the strike would continue until their demands are met.

Members of Parliament blamed Finance minister Uhuru Kenyatta for the strike, with the House Committee on Education accusing the minister of failing to provide the money to employ teachers.

Would not turn up

At the same time, the Knut national executive committee asked parents not to send children to school as teachers would not turn up.

“We are withdrawing labour from schools countrywide,” secretary-general David Okuta said after a meeting at the union’s offices in Nairobi.

At Parliament Buildings, Education committee members claimed credit for proposing cuts in the Budget to raise Sh6.7 billion, part of which was to finance the recruitment.

But the team blamed Mr Kenyatta for rejecting the proposal and instead allocating the money to the military.

Committee chairman David Koech said the lawmakers had done their bit in pushing the government to address the teachers’ shortage in the country.

The team was let down by the minister when he rejected the proposal as adopted by the House, Mr Koech said.

“In the corrigenda (to the Budget estimates) that he tabled in the House, the Minister of Finance had the power to include Sh5 billion for the employment of teachers. He failed to do so,” he said, adding: “The onus was and still is with the Minister of Finance.”

But the MPs did not mention that they cut a deal with the Executive in the presence of House Speaker Kenneth Marende to look the other way and postpone the recruitment of teachers until the next Budget.

Cover back and future taxes

The lawmakers did this after the Treasury agreed to allocate Sh2 billion from the Contingency Fund to cover their back and future taxes.

On Tuesday, they ducked questions about what the priorities should be since they were so focused on getting their tax arrears paid, and did not raise a finger when Mr Kenyatta decided to allocate the money saved in the Budget to the military.

The lawmakers said the minister ought to include the money for new teachers in the Supplementary Budget that is traditionally tabled in Parliament in March of every year.

The MPs claimed they could “not catch the Speaker’s eye” to contribute to the debate as the House approved the Budget in the Committee of Supply and that’s why they did not speak out against the decision to postpone the hiring of teachers.

Only Mr John Mbadi (Gwassi) spoke against the decision not to employ teachers in this financial year.