The Kenya National Union of Teachers has wants their employer, the Teachers Service Commission, to honour the law and pay them as directed by the industrial court in a recent ruling.
Speaking on Friday at Nyakemincha Secondary school during a prize giving ceremony, Gesore Secondary school principal Francis Mensire, who is also Nyamira county executive branch member of KNUT, said it was against the law for their employer to deny paying them what the court had lawfully awarded them as their salary increment in a petition that had been filed by the union.
“On behalf of all secondary school teachers under my leadership in Nyamira, I call upon the TSC and the government to honour what our honourable court had ruled, we are not pushing for the money because it ruled on our favour, but request that we all respect the rule of law and let them pay us our money as soon as possible,” said Mensire.
The court had last week ruled in favour of KNUT and directed that TSC and the government pay the teachers an increase of between 50- 60% in a back-dated period of four years.
The government has since said that it does not have the money to pay them as directed by the employment and labour relations court in last week’s ruling.
The cabinet secretary for education Jacob Kaimenyi has since said the government will appeal against the ruling.
His sentiments have however angered the union, as they claim that the government and TSC were aware of the case in court and so they ought to accept the outcome.
Mensire, however, encouraged his fellow teachers to be patient and continue attending to pupils in class as they would expect the money to be channeled to their accounts in the course of the week.
“We expect the money to come in the course of the week and we should continue being in class,” he added.
The KNUT official also took issue with the health insurance scheme, National Health Insurance Fund (NHIF), over what he termed as unfairly targeting teachers’ salaries.
He was referring to the recent increased deduction to the scheme, which was done without consultations with their union.
NHIF decided to deduct all civil servants Sh1,700 from the previously harmonised Sh320 as from May this year.