Teacher’s union Knut has been urged to stay put and announce a political stand in the much awaited 2017 polls, with officials from Masaba spearheading the calls.
The Masaba team which was attending a funeral of one of its members at Karantini in Kitutu Masaba on Wednesday urged the national management to mobilise teachers to have one political stand to define their destiny in 2017 elections.
Deputy Secretary General James Oteki said teachers were being given a raw deal because of their ‘disunity’ in political matters.
“I want to call upon all Kenyan teachers to speak in one voice so that we can combat this repeated habit of giving us raw deals. My humble request to the national Knut team is that they have to call all of us so that we can have one political decision,” Oteki said.
Secretary General Meshack Ombongi challenged teachers to work as a team in a bid to tackle ‘impunity’ in terms of handling teachers by the employer.
“We must have a common stand so that we can fight impunity by TSC. Otherwise teachers will always lose major battles because we are not taken serious by members of the political class. I have spoken to the Secretary General (Wilson Sossion) and I hope he will expedite the process of convening a national meeting for us to speak with one political voice,” he said.
They criticised the recent ruling by the Appellate Court that quashed the awarding of 50-60 per cent basic salary increase by Industrial Court.
“As teachers, that (ruling) was a direct attack and infringement of our rights. That is why we are of the opinion we support someone who can champion for our plight and this is the time to do that,” Ombongi said.