Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Central Organisation of Trade Unions (COTU) have rekindled a relationship that was terminated 53 years ago.
KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion announced on Thursday that the teachers union had joined COTU.
Sossion, who is also a Member of Parliament, termed it as a bold move arrived at after a resolution by all the members.
"As we partner with COTU, KNUT shall continue pushing for workers' agenda through the same course," Sossion stated.
He clarified that KNUT will still be the teachers' strongest common voice.
The added that after fully affiliating to COTU again, their members should expect much more from the organisation.
The lawmaker called upon all 312,000 teachers who are members of KNUT to celebrate the move because it strengthened the union.
Sossion reminded delegates who were present at the announcement that the union was one of the founding members of COTU in 1965.
The government later forced KNUT and the defunct Kenya Civil Servants Union (KCSU) to disaffiliate from COTU claiming that the teaching profession and the civil service were essential services that should not belong to trade union organizations.
The government feared that the enormous size of these unions could create a threat to industrial peace, particularly in the event of any united challenge from COTU and the public service unions.
