Teachers plan strike over Kaimenyi rules

Teachers have threatened to go on strike over the new rules requiring school heads to be under the direct control of the Education Cabinet secretary.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has given Prof Jacob Kaimenyi seven days to revoke a gazette notice of the Basic Education Regulations, 2014, failure to which it will ask its members to boycott classes next term.

Kuppet secretary-general Akello Misori said the CS had overstepped his mandate.

“The Constitution clearly states that teachers are employees of the TSC (Teachers Service Commission) and not the Ministry of Education. The minister is infringing on the independence of the TSC. He wants to take us back to a stage when teachers had multiple employers. We will resist that,” said Mr Misori at a press conference in Nairobi on Monday.

He said Prof Kaimenyi should learn from President Uhuru Kenyatta, who makes a retraction if a move he has taken is not constitutional.

“Let him (Prof Kaimenyi) engage us,” said Mr Misori.

MOVE NECESSARY

Prof Kaimenyi insisted that the move was necessary to make headteachers accountable in running schools.

“The issue of stepping onto the mandate of the TSC does not arise. The law is now clear that if a headteacher misappropriates funds, I should sack that official and ask the TSC for a replacement,” said Prof Kaimenyi.

Kuppet’s Nyamira branch executive secretary Lewis Nyakweba said teachers had not been consulted before the decision was made.

Kenya National Union of Teachers secretary-general Wilson Sossion accused Prof Kaimenyi of making a decision on a sensitive matter without first consulting stakeholders.

“We are asking for sobriety. Stakeholders must be consulted,” he said in Nyamira at the end of last week.

Reported by Maryanne Gicobi, Henry Nyarora and Geoffrey Rono