The Kenya Hotel and Allied Workers union (Kudheiha) has appealed to President Uhuru Kenyatta to intervene in the teachers’ salary stalemate to end the strike.
Kudheiha Nyanza branch chairman John Oyugi said they are supporting teachers and asked the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Teachers (Kuppet) officials to stay put until their grievances are addressed by government.
Oyugi emphasised that the teachers’ salary must be paid in line with the court ruling that they get 50-60 percent increment so that children can go back to school.
He said the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC) and the government must respect the rights of workers as spearheaded by Knut and Kuppet leaders if they hope to win cooperation of other unions if future standoffs.
Oyugi described the teachers strike as a storm that cannot be stopped unless the government conceded by obeying the court order.
In a press release on Wednesday, he appealed to leaders across the country to support the teachers’ salary increment as they do a commendable job.
“The two teachers unions have legal and moral authority to hold the strike as it is the ultimate solution considering that the Industrial and High Courts and the Court of Appeal upheld the demands. This has been a long struggle and teachers must not be neglected or ignored since they were instrumental in transforming the through curbing illiteracy,” the statement added.
“The government should not pretend that there is no money to pay teachers while a lot of funds were being poured into the NYS projects which are being looted,” Oyugi said.
He also singled out the wheelbarrow scandal of Bungoma County in which a piece cost Sh109,000 and the Nyamira gate which cost Sh7 million as some of the conduits through which public resources were being siphoned.
Oyugi said the first President Jomo Kenyatta promised to fight poverty, illiteracy and disease but in the current Kenya, teachers and nurses are persistently on the streets demanding for their rights.
He urged Uhuru to intervene to save Kenya from shame, as failure to do so will be a sign of impunity of the highest order which will dent the good image of the country globally.