Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) officials have embarked on another mission of winning back the more than 80,000 teachers who decamped to their rival, KUPPET.
KNUT’s move follows threats by the Teachers Service Commission to have the union’s recognition agreement revoked in two months.
KNUT’s leadership, led by the union’s Secretary General Wilson Sossion, have resorted to forgetting their differences and work as a team towards rebuilding their once vibrant union.
What TSC’s notice to KNUT meant, was that if the union does not make things right (which is having the required 50 percent membership threshold) in two months, the union would be rendered useless and would be stripped off its rights of defending teachers.
Also, KNUT officials would go back to being ordinary teachers in class while those that would be found to have attained retirement age would be sent home.
It is probably for this reason that the union’s officials who have for some time been involved in wrangles between themselves have decided to let go of their differences and unite in their new course of making sure they bring back teachers who were previously under the KNUT umbrella.
“A divided union cannot defend our teachers. It is time for us to forget our differences and fight for our teachers,” said Sossion in numerous sessions with the officials.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia in the recent past continued to insist that TSC actions are guided by legal provisions and that the parties involved have an opportunity for conciliation provided it is within the law.
“Until 2016, we had an unstructured relationship with the unions, and now in our engagements with them, the commission operates strictly within the legal provisions, in good faith and after we’ve had a careful review,” said the TSC boss.
Dr. Macharia clarified that as much as there will be revocation of recognition agreement should KNUT fail to meet the required threshold, as a commission, they have no mandate to deregister a union as that is the registrar of trade unions responsibility.
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On this, she also maintained that TSC acted within the law by first sending a notice to the teachers union.