Sunday, July 7, 2013

Knut now willing to talk

Updated Sunday, July 7th 2013 at 18:40 GMT +3
By Allan Kisia and Vitalis Kimutai
Kenya: The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has softened its stand on the ongoingteachers strike and indicated that it is willing to engage in talks with the Government to end the stalemate.
Knut national chairman Wilson Sossion however pointed out Sunday that the union has not received any invitation from the government for the talks.
“We have the interest to have things done to the benefit of all parties but we have not received any formal invitation for a meeting with government over the dispute,” Sossion told The Standard on telephone.
 Sossion denied reports that he led the union’s leaders for a meeting with government officials led by Cabinet Secretary for Labour Kazungu Kambi over the weekend at a Nairobi hotel for informal talks.
“We did not meet with Government officials over the weekend. Those are lies being peddled,” Sossion said.
Reports claimed Knut met Government officials at the weekend with an official meeting slated for this week.
On the other hand, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) is Monday morning expected to hold a meeting with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) and Ministry of Education, Labour and National Treasury to sign a document on implementation of the agreement which will be deposited at the Industrial Court on July 15.
“We have been invited to a meeting tomorrow at TSC to compute and sign the agreement that will be deposited at the Industrial court in a week’s time as directed,” Mr Akello Misori, the Kuppet Secretary General said.
Misori accused Knut of misleading teachers and turning the fight for welfare of teachers to a contest for membership between it and Kuppet.
“KNUT panicked after we called for a strike, engaged the government for talks and came out with a deal to benefit teachers..They have been engaging in dirty tricks and propaganda and lying to the public in the day they are not talking with government yet to look for officials at night,” Misori claimed.
At the same time, a former Kuppet Secretary General Njeru Kanyamba accused the union of misleading its members by calling a strike without the blessing of National Governing Council.
“We want these official prosecuted for declaring an illegal strike. The strike begun before thenational governing council was held,” he explained.
Kanyamba was quick to state that he is not interested in getting back his position at the union but is just concerned with the “bad state of affairs” of an organisation he formed.
“I am not fighting to go back to Kuppet, but I feel pain when I see a union being destroyed by greed,” he stated.
He added that the increasing number of membersdecamping to rival Kenya National Union of Teachers(Knut) is as a result of the manner in which Kuppet handled the strike.
“I would like to register my disappointment with the manner in which the union’s national officials have handled the latest strike. They do not in the very least understand the rules governing trade unions,” he stated.
He claimed the national officials have been runningthe union without a valid constitution
“We came up with a constitution in 2010 but it was not gazetted as required by law. I did not stay in the union long enough to validate the constitution,” he explained.

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