TSC sacks Sossion and other union leaders in Parliament

TSC chief executive officer Nancy Macharia and KNUT secretary general Wilson Sossion at a past function. PHOTO | FILE | NATION MEDIA GROUP

What you need to know:

  • The Teachers Service Commission sacked Mr Sossion following his move to join politics as an Orange Democratic Movement nominated Member of Parliament.
  • Also sacked is Kuppet chairman Omboko Milemba who is also Emuhaya MP and Bomet Central MP Ronald Tonui who serves as Kuppet assistant treasurer.
  • The TSC moved to end the services of Mr Sossion after he defied a “termination from the teaching service” notice sent to him on December 14, 2017.

Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion has been sacked as a public school teacher.

The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) sacked Mr Sossion following his move to join politics as an Orange Democratic Movement nominated Member of Parliament.

Also sacked is Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) chairman Omboko Milemba who is also Emuhaya MP and Bomet Central MP Ronald Tonui who serves as Kuppet assistant treasurer.

Mr Sossion accepted the ODM nomination to join Parliament without resigning or retiring from service, the commission argued.

Regulation 187 (1) and (2) of the Code of Regulations for Teachers requires teachers released to trade unions to resign or retire from service once they opt to vie for political office.

“It has been noted that you were nominated as a Member of Parliament yet the Commission has not received your resignation or retirement letter,” TSC boss Nancy Macharia wrote in the sacking letter signed by J.M. Maundu on January 15, 2018.

TERMINATE SERVICES

She added: “The commission had decided to terminate your services as a teacher with effect from January 15, 2018.”

The letter is titled “Termination of service following assumption of political office”.

The TSC moved to end the services of Mr Sossion after he defied a “termination from the teaching service” notice sent to him on December 14, 2017.

Mr Sossion said he saw no reason to quit the service despite becoming a legislator.

“While I acknowledge the fact that I took oath of office as a nominated Member of Parliament, the nomination into the particular office was to represent workers and their interest (sic) in the National Assembly as a specially recognised category,” Mr Sossion wrote on January 9, in response to TSC’s notice of termination.

Mr Sossion said:  “My otherwise release by the commission to the union as well as my acceptance of the nomination is within the provisions of the code of regulations for teachers as well as all other relevant laws.”

He said his nomination to the National Assembly was by virtue of the elective position he held as Knut secretary-general.

RUN FOR ELECTIONS

Mr Sossion said the TSC was relying on a section of the regulations that applied only to those staff members who were seeking to run in elections when, in fact, his was a mere nomination.

He also cited a case pending in court, in which trade unions are seeking to overturn a Gazette notice by Labour Cabinet Secretary Phylis Kandie purporting to kick him and other trade union officials out of union leadership positions arguing they could not hold two public positions.

In the case, Justice Nelson Abuodha of the Labour Court on December 15, last year suspended the implementation of the Gazette notice that also targeted Union of Kenya Civil Servants Secretary- General Tom Odege, Kuppet’s gender Secretary Catherine Wambilyanga among others.

“In the pendency of the suit and in existence of an injunction order against the implementation of the Gazette notice by the Cabinet Secretary on my holding of the office of Member of Parliament and the secretary-general of Knut, any action affecting the status is contra (sic) the order,” Mr Sossion said.

RECEIVING PENSION

On Saturday, Mr Milemba and Mr Tonui could not be reached for comment but Mr Sossion dismissed the decision by TSC.

“I have not been sacked, I left in 2001. I am not an employee of TSC. Ms Kandie tried it and failed,” said Mr Sossion, who disclosed that he was only receiving pension and nothing more.

He explained that union leaders are normally released by the Commission but retain their pension and, if they so wish to go back to teaching, can do so.

“I will continue to serve the union. This is politics. Knut is not a department of TSC,” said Mr Sossion, who termed the move an elaborate plan by the government to frustrate union leaders in Parliament.