Government wants me kicked out of union, Sossion says

Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion (left) address the media at a past event. He has accused senior Ministry of Education officials of plotting to have him kicked out of union leadership. PHOTO | JEFF ANGOTE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • Sossion dared leaders in the education sector to try and attempt to remove him from office.
  • Some Knut officials said the NEC meeting was a ploy by Education ministry officials to have the council members kick Mr Sossion out of Knut leadership.
  • Mr Sossion and Cabinet Secretary for Education Fred Matiang’i have in the recent weeks had a bitter exchange of words.
  • Mr Sossion said the union would continue to speak the truth regardless of how much the same would hurt the government.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion on Saturday claimed that the Jubilee government had hatched a plot to remove him from his position as a major fallout between him and the national chairman Mudzo Nzili threatened to bring down the giant teachers union.

Mr Sossion warned the government that any plans to remove him from the union and weaken the teachers’ trade union movement were bound to fail, adding that “he was there to stay”.

He dared leaders in the education sector to try and attempt to remove him from office.

“The National Executive Council (NEC) empowered me and I am not about to back down. I want to tell the individuals in the government who are working day and night to remove me that their scheme will not work. I am here to stay and to speak on behalf of teachers without fear,” he said.

The statement by Mr Sossion comes less than 24 hours after a stormy meeting by Knut National Executive Council (NEC), the powerful top decision-making organ of the union, which was allegedly meant to help iron out the issues between him and Mr Nzili.

However, some Knut officials who spoke to the Sunday Nation on condition of anonymity said the NEC meeting was a ploy by some senior officials of the Education ministry to have the council members kick Mr Sossion out of the union leadership over his remarks against the government.

The meeting went all the way past 8 pm on Friday and Mr Sossion seems to have come out of it unscathed though the resolutions reached by the NEC have not been made public.

WITHOUT PROPER CONSULTATIONS

Mr Sossion and Cabinet Secretary for Education Fred Matiang’i have in the recent weeks had a bitter exchange of words, with Mr Sossion accusing the minister of issuing directives without holding proper consultations.

Mr Sossion said the union would continue to speak the truth regardless of how much the same would hurt the government. He blamed Jubilee of rolling out the laptop project for Class One pupils, saying it was a demonstration that the priorities of the government were lopsided.

“Teachers are central to quality education. There cannot be quality education without teachers and the laptop project was an upside down priority. Technology cannot and will never replace teachers,” he said.

As though to prove that he had the backing of Knut officials, Mr Sossion was accompanied by NEC officials Emily Kirui and Stanley Mutai along with several other officials from Knut branches around the country.

Mrs Kirui said she was the “minister of security” for Mr Sossion in the NEC, indicating that the council could be divided, though Mr Sossion insisted that efforts by the government to cause divisions in the union would fail. “We are here to show our solidarity with our brother Sossion and to remind him that we will always support him against forces who are fighting his work for the teachers,” she said.