Some 32,000 teachers will be smiling all the way to the bank after they bagged promotions following their exit from the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).
A report by The Standard on Thursday, January 7, indicated that the 32,000 teachers, largely from B5 job group would be promoted to the C1 job group.
This is after the tutors accepted the Career Progression Guidelines (CPGs) that has for a while been opposed by the teachers union headed by Wilson Sossion.
It was also revealed that up to 15,000 teachers were poised for a promotion in the future.
The new development has dealt a blow to KNUT whose membership dropped drastically from over 136,000 to a meagre of 10,350 members.
The union had opposed the CPGs arguing that promotions were to be determined by merit, seniority and available vacancies.
In old schemes of service, teachers were promoted depending on selective proficiency courses while CPG provided a chance for common cadre promotions which happen every three months
The report further indicated that the mass exit cost the union up to Ksh1.6 billion payouts.
In comparison, KNUT received a Ksh144 million payout in June 2019, a figure that significantly reduced to just Ksh20 million in November 2020.
Teachers who are still members of KNUT are therefore not benefitting from the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA)which was signed in 2017 with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
In November 2020, the union had petitioned President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene in the row between the union and (TSC).
KNUT national treasurer John Matiang'i had at the time noted that the commission had hatched a scheme to further escalate the union's financial woes.
"Your excellency, the President, I appeal to you as the father of the teachers of this country, take up this matter by yourself.
"The obituary of this union should not be written when you are the head of state," he stated.
