The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has appealed for support from the Commission for the Implementation of the Constitution (CIC) and human rights lobbyists in their quest to have the government increase teachers' salaries.
Speaking to the press in Kisumu on Friday Knut chairman Mudzo Nzili said that the move by Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to try and end the strike is an act of impunity.
"Kenyans must know that teachers are also human beings. I don't understand where is the voice of the constitution implementation team and the human rights commission," said Nzili.
He added, "You must have heard that they went to the courts yesterday to stop a legal strike. Where I come from strikes in the Labour Act is legal and anchored in the constitution."
Nzili said that teachers are patriotic saying the government must be compelled to meet their demands.
"Why is that teachers are treated as if they came after the promulgation of the new constitution? If the teachers are denied their right then this is litmus test of the new constitution," the Knut chairman said.
Nzili said the stand by the national treasury that the government doesn't have money to pay teachers is an insincere excuse.
"What we have asked the national government to pay teachers is Sh1.4 billion every month. People think teachers want to be paid Sh17 billion at once," he said.