Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Deputy Secretary General Hesbon Otieno has elucidated why teachers’ unions are at loggerheads with their employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) after a proposal to change the TSC Act.
Speaking in an interview with Citizen TV on Wednesday, Otieno lamented the proposed amendments arguing that it is seeking to make the TSC an autocratic employer and gag Kenyan teachers.
“This document is supposed to serve several purposes. The people who are directly affected are the players in the field that is the teacher and employer,” he argued.
“If you see TSC apportioning itself a lot of rule over the teacher in terms of disciplining the teacher based on evidence that is not well factored.”
According to Otieno, TSC wants to award themselves power to dictate teachers’ salaries in partnership with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
He argued that the initiative would deny teachers a bargaining power.
On his part, Lugari Member of Parliament (MP) Nabii Nabwera opined that the tussle can go out of hand if it is not dealt with aptly and amicably.
“What we are seeing is a personality conflict which is now being imported to the architecture of the management of the education sector and it may cause a lot of problems,” he said.
This lies on the backdrop of a tiff between KNUT, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and the TSC over the proposed law changes.
Last week TSC invited education stakeholders to a public participation meeting on proposed amendments and KNUT SG Collins Oyoo declared that they will be a no-show at the meeting terming the proposed changes to be punitive to teachers.
“We are not ready to be scolded anymore,” he said at a media briefing.
KUPPET SG Akelo Misori accused TSC of seeking more power instead of addressing the pertinent matters ailing the education sector.
“…You act bossy yet it is us who created you. If you did not exist under the Constitution, you would ne nowhere therefore we are not coming here because of any fear,” he said.
