Uasin Gishu County Governor Jackson Mandago has urged the Teachers Service Commission and the Ministry of Education to stop playing delaying tactics and pay teachers as per the Supreme Court ruling, to prevent the looming strike.
Speaking in his office on Monday, Mandago said that he fully supports teachers to go on strike if the government will not meet their needs, since teachers have been forgotten and the only way their pleas can be heard is through carrying placards and going to the street for the national government to give them a hearing.
“What is wrong with paying teachers the 50-60 percent pay increase, teachers do a lot and no one appreciates them,” he said.
“The chairman of the appropriation Committee Mutava Musymi stated clearly that TSC and the government should pay teachers then the bill for supplementary budgetary allocation be brought to parliament, why is TSC playing hard and why is it hard when it comes to paying teachers’ salaries, if nothing is done, teachers should not report to class until they are paid,” he added.
He urged president Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to intervene before things get worse, noting that children and parents will suffer most.
He further noted that it will be unfair for the children attending public schools if the teachers strike, since their private school counterparts will be on with their normal studies and covering the syllabus before sitting for the national examinations.