Just a day or so gone after the Kenya National Teachers Union (KNUT) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion resigned from his position, more information has emerged regarding the future of the teachers union after consistent frustrations from the government.
“I have therefore today decided that in the interest of KNUT, its membership, and myself I hereby honorably bow out of KNUT leadership. I shall remain loyal to KNUT and always available to advise and support the leadership. I trust that the Government of Kenya will find it necessary to allow Union dues to flow to KNUT again,” revealed Sossion in a briefing to the media yesterday.
Reports have revealed that the incoming KNUT Secretary General Collins Oyuu has a systematic plan in place that will eventually revive the union and get back union dues deductions resume with the 2019 July membership being reinstated.
Teachers could be surprised to see deductions return on their payslips without their authorization.
A section of teachers has been accusing the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of deducting money from their payslips without their consent.
According to the teachers, the Commission conducted an offense against the law for allowing deductions against their will.
A section of secondary school teachers feels they were added illegally to the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) membership yet they did not apply to be part of the union.
Some teachers deployed as P1 graduates also complained that TSC has immediately added them to KUPPET after they took up the offer to be deployed to secondary schools.
Since the year 2019, TSC has been on the wrong side of the complaints about sidelining some teachers’ unions. KNUT itself has accused TSC of crippling its operations by significantly cutting off a huge chunk of membership and hence denying it funds.
In June of 2019, KNUT took the conflict over the membership in the Kenya Women Teachers Association (KEWOTA) to the Ethics and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI).
The KNUT Secretary-General at that time Wilson Sossion implored the EACC and the DCI to look into the matter and investigate TSC for allegedly working together with KEWOTA to enroll teachers to KEWOTA without their knowledge.
“It has come to our notice that the TSC has illegally executed check-off deductions of Sh. 200 per female teacher from 58,000 teachers who did not at all authorize their deduction,” said Wilson Sossion in a letter to the two government agencies dated the 20th of June, 2019.
Sossion said that the union found out that the commission automatically loaded programs to automatically deduct money, without the approval of the teachers and in collusion with officials with KEWOTA.
Former acting Secretary-General of KUPPET Moses Nturima claimed that members were recruited and deductions made with the knowledge of TSC which he alleged an indication of vested interests.
“The deductions are illegal and involve economic crimes against the affected teachers on the part of the employer,” said Nturima.
When the KEWOTA co-founder Ms. Ndegwa was contacted for comment, she said that the union champions the rights of women is never in competition with the other teachers’ unions.
“Why is it that when women come together it becomes an issue? Women’s needs are unique. We want to fill gaps unions have not been able to handle,” said Ms. Ndegwa, the KEWOTA co-founder.
Ms. Ndegwa revealed that KEWOTA had recruited 60,000 members who pay a monthly stipend of Sh. 200. This translated to a figure of Sh. 12 million per month.
Owing to the COVID-19 pandemic the treasury informed the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) that there will be no Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Any salary reviews were also frozen for the next couple of years.
SRC boss Lyn Mengich said that there will be no increments on salaries for public servants for the next two years to give room for the government to stabilize the economy.
“Cognizant of the government’s financial constraints, the current wage bill ratios, the need to release resources for investment in the strategic priorities of the government to jumpstart the COVID-19 ravaged economy, there will be no review of the basic salary structures, allowances, and benefits paid in the public sector in the financial year 2021/2022 – 2022/23,” said Lyn Mengich.
Teachers now will face a painful economic stab as there will also be a three percent pension deduction in January 2022. If further deductions are going to be made against the will of teachers then this spells bad news to the pockets of teachers across the country.