The plan that nailed Knut chiefs
Kiboro Primary School Juja Road headmistress Dorcas Mutinda shares a moment with her pupils, on Thursday. Public primary schools remain shut. PHOTO/ANTHONY OMUYA
What you need to know:
- With Kaimenyi closing primary schools and the danger of being jailed, officials had no option
- Officials ask TSC to withdraw contempt of court charges against them
A well-orchestrated scheme by government operatives is believed to have pushed a teachers’ union leaders to end their strike.
Hours before making the announcement to close public primary schools at 4pm on Wednesday, Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi held a closed-door meeting with mandarins of his and Labour ministries.
The officials agreed to close the schools indefinitely as a ploy to get Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) to call off the strike— with the underlying warning that the closure would mean teachers would miss pay for at least three months.
This, sources indicated, had already been shared with President Kenyatta, his deputy William Ruto and Teachers Service Commission as the last resort after the teachers refused to call off the job boycott on Sunday as was widely expected.
Those who attended the meeting included Principal Secretaries Colleta Suda and Belio Kipsang, Commissioner of Labour Sammy Nyambari and senior deputy secretaries Isaiah Nyaribo and Eimerita Haoya. Others were directors Margaret Thiong’o (Field Services) and Margaret Okemo (Basic Education).
The meeting was also informed by the plan by the Industrial Court to rule on contempt of court charges against Knut chairman Wilson Sossion and acting secretary-general Mudzo Nzili.
Their plan was to quickly issue a press statement recalling the order to close schools immediately the Knut officials end the strike, a source familiar with the developments intimated to Nation.
A press conference that was scheduled at 1pm at Jogoo House was put off until 4pm when consultations were made between the Cabinet Secretaries and Mr Ruto’s office.
But Knut quickly learnt of the plot and rushed to Mr Ruto’s office almost at the same time Prof Kaimenyi was about to issue a Press statement. This led to the postponing of the Press conference by at least three hours.
During the short-lived meeting with Mr Ruto, Knut officials signed a return-to-work formulae before heading to their offices to call off the three-week job boycott.
