‘Can’t teach, won’t teach,’ teachers now tell Uhuru

“We can’t teach. We won’t teach.”

That was the candid response by teachers to President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Friday statement that there is no money to pay them.

Kenya National Union of Teachers leaders on Saturday claimed that the President Kenyatta’s declaration could throw the country into a state of anarchy.

Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion and national chairman Mudzo Nzili described the President’s statement as “arrogant”. 

The statement followed another meeting where Cotu Secretary-General Francis Atwoli said its 42 affiliates planned a nationwide strike in support of teachers but had been pushed to Tuesday, when it is hoped a court order stopping it would be lifted. Cotu met all its affiliates at their headquarters in Nairobi.

This came as Kuppet Secretary-General Akello Misori said the President should allow institutions mandated to speak on the issue of teachers’ pay, including the courts, do their work.

Yesterday, Mr Sossion and Mr Nzili said that teachers who have been on strike for the past two weeks will respond with the same arrogance by refusing to go back to class.

“I will not call off the strike. And because the government has said it can’t pay; teachers are also saying they can’t teach,” said Mr Sossion.

They spoke at Kimugul Village in Kipkelion East Constituency during the burial of 84-year-old Wilson Kenduiywa, a former Paramount Chief.

Mr Sossion said that Knut executive council will today meet to give directions following the President’s remarks.

“We will not allow the government to stand in the way of a pay rise,” he said.

On Friday, President Kenyatta, who had remained quiet about the strike, now entering its third week tomorrow, said that the teachers’ salary increment was untenable.

Mr Kenyatta said the quest for pay increase is not only unsustainable but is bound to cause imbalances in the civil service wages and spark fresh demands by other workers.

“Over 50 per cent of what government collects now goes to paying salaries and, with the new demands, we will be at over 60 per cent. What is going to be left for development?

“We have to start looking at some of these demands against the economic reality. To pay more, we must be able to make more first,” Mr Kenyatta told journalists at State House.

Speaking at the Kipkelion funeral, Mr Nzili said that since the President’s election results were validated by the Supreme Court, it will be unfair for him not to obey the same court with regard to teachers’ salaries.

Mr Atwoli accused the President of failing to call a meeting of workers’ unions when he landed in the country on Friday morning, and accused him of being insensitive to workers’ demands.

Meanwhile, ODM has said President Uhuru Kenyatta should resign for blatantly disobeying a court order on teachers’ pay.

Secretary-General Ababu Namwamba said the President had no option but to obey the Supreme Court order.

Mr Namwamba said the President was himself a product of the same court which in 2013 declared his election valid.

He said that to solve the impasse, the government must put on hold its ambitious laptops project and spend Sh17 billion lying idle for three years to pay teachers.

Cord leader Raila Odinga asked President Kenyatta to divert funds meant for what he said were fictitious National Youth Service projects to pay teachers.

Additional reporting by Nelcon Odhiambo