Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) on Wednesday announced a nation wide teacher’s strike slated to begin on January 2.
Speaking over the issue, KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion revealed that the union was forced to declare the strike after Teacher’s Service Commission (TSC) violated labour rights.
“We can’t promise you that the new year will start well… parents should adjust their budgets very well because the Christmas will be extended into the new year,” stated Sossion.
The Secretary General further accused TSC of “de-professionalising the teaching profession”.
This comes hours hours after TSC ignored a protest letter Sossion had written denouncing the transfer of more than 3,000 teachers.
In the letter to TSC, the KNUT Secretary General asked the commission to respect the President’s directive by stopping transfers since they were affecting families.
The transfer, which had been announced by TSC CEO Nancy Macharia, affected mostly head teachers of Primary and Secondary schools who had served at one location for more than nine years.
Macharia explained that the transfers resulted from retirements of head teachers that had attained the requisite age.
“As a result, deputy heads who are qualified and have exemplary performance records have been promoted to headship positions and transferred accordingly.
“Inevitably, some of the serving heads have also been transferred to take the positions that fell vacant. This is necessary in order to match performance and experience to the enrollment and level of the institutions,” stated the CEO.
