Standoff as guards deny Wilson Sossion entry

What you need to know:

  • He vowed to move forward and press for charges of contempt of court order by the team led by Mr Otieno.

There was a standoff at the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) headquarters on Monday morning after beleaguered secretary-general, Wilson Sossion, was barred from entering the offices by security men guarding the premises.

Mr Sossion, who was making true his declaration to go to the office despite his removal and consequent elevation of his former deputy, Hesbon Otieno, as acting secretary-general, came with a court order barring his removal from office and terming it unlawful.

COURT ORDER

“They have restrained me from accessing my office, to facilitate an illegal installation of a replacement, and blocked me from performing my duties to the teachers of this country, contrary to the directive of the Employment and Labour Relations Court,” he said.

According to the court order, a temporary injunction order had been issued by the court on May 2, 2018, prohibiting his deregistration as an official of Knut and/or installing another official to the post, pending the hearing and determination of the petition filed.

“The application had been fixed for inter partes hearing on May 10, 2018 and therefore this other faction’s occupation of the office is illegal and in contempt of the court order,” said Mr Sossion.

He vowed to move forward and press for charges of contempt of court order by the team led by Mr Otieno, who had hired bodyguards to block his access to the Knut headquarters.

Terming the security men as ‘hired goons’, Mr Sossion said that only police officers should have been called upon to guard the premises had his obstruction from accessing his office been lawful.

“The labour movement is under attack by syndicates and teachers bear much of the brunt of this attack. My nomination as an MP, was a threat to them as it augmented my influence in empowering the teachers, which is why they are constantly trying to block me,” said the besieged Knut official.

He also mentioned that there has been no tension nor bad-blood between him and the National Executive Council (Nec), and thus his ejection from office is dubious.

On Monday last week however, the Nec said it had voted to oust Mr Sossion, ‘for being dishonest’, but he, during the Labour Day celebrations at Uhuru Park, dismissed this removal, maintaining that he was the Knut boss as he had been elected by teachers.

The group moved forward to swear in Mr Otieno, his deputy, to replace him in an acting position later on in the week.

Mr Sossion nevertheless received backing from a section of Knut officials and Central Organisation Trade Unions (Cotu) secretary-general, Francis Atwoli, who said he was in the National Assembly as a nominated MP to represent the interest of workers.