Teachers and Senators to strike at Kenya’s 3-month old government

A section of public school teachers went on strike yesterday, June 18th. Teachers belonging to the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education and Tertiary downed their tools to demand a pay hike. According to Mr. Wilson Sossion, the chairman of the largest teachers’ unions, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, all governments are the same and only wait for a crisis before they pay matters their due attention.

“They [government] never listen. They wait for a crisis and if that is what they need we will definitely give them in style,” he was quoted by the Daily Nation (../../Tuesday%2018th%20June%202013.jpg). Teachers won’t be alone on the streets though, senators are already walking that path. It will be an extension of how masses, numbers and, most notably money continues to rule the game in Kenya’s socio-economic and political landscape.

The Occupy Parliament demonstration last week technically handed over the battle to the Senate, having been outwitted by the National Assembly who had sealed a deal with the Salaries and Remuneration Commission. Homa Bay senator Otieno Kajwang and former Attorney General Amos Wako (now Busia senator) also threatened in the same week to take their case to the Supreme Court.

On Monday (June 18th), Senate’s Legal and Human Rights Affairs Committee met to discuss on getting the country to a referendum aimed at amending the Constitution to place the Senate on a more prominent legislative position in the devolved system. This amendment needs a million signatures from the public: an exercise they have been conducting since last week. The 67-member Senate has been receiving what they perceive to be a beating from the National Assembly which wields a 349-strong membership. Recently the National Assembly got a boost when the President signed his assent to the Revenue Allocation Bill which the Senate had opposed.

This now gets both the Senate and teachers simultaneously out on the streets but for different reasons. As Senators gun for the one million signatures needed for a constitutional amendment to give them more powers, teachers will be seeking dues they negotiated with the government back in 1997. Last year in September, teachers staged a 3-week strike that interfered with national exams.

Meanwhile Nairobi Metropolitan KNUT Executive Officer Hesbon Otieno has confirmed his union members are on standby and might join the strike any time from next week. “We are waiting for the National Executive Committee to meet and set the date for us to join. We have already been told to brace for a strike by our chairman,” he said. While students in public schools stare at the possibility of another impromptu vacation, the ‘tyranny of numbers’ continues to be the weapon of choice in Kenya.

REPORT BY Mark Namaswa