Labour Court Judge Byrum Ongaya has dealt the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) a blow, in its bid to cut links with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).
Last month, the Nancy Macharia-headed commission wrote to KNUT, seeking to terminate their working agreement signed on May 15, 1968.
The commission argues that KNUT's teacher membership numbers fall below the required threshold, which the union has cast blame on TSC, for allegedly transferring its members.
But KNUT lawyer Judith Guserwa told the court that the notice was baseless, and would only do harm, and should not, therefore, be allowed.
“If the said notice is allowed to take effect, it is going to create irreparable loss and suffering in the education sector as well as strain the relationship between the parties,”she is quoted by the Sunday Standard.
The judge pointed out that KNUT had a higher probability of winning the case, and the two sides should therefore maintain the status quo.
In the case, the Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) Secretary General Francis Atwoli threw his weight behind his KNUT counterpart Wilson Sossion, assuring him of support.
He said that TSC is going out of the law in its bid to settle scores with KNUT.
"The simple majority of 50+1 per cent no longer holds water under the new Constitution with a robust Bill of Rights and this is what the teachers’ employer seems to ignore," he said earlier.
In his affidavit, Sosison argued that TSC had put up a validation process in KNUT's teachers portal to interfere with the number of teachers joining its membership list.
KNUT has also accused TSC of transferring its members to the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), to strangle its teacher population.
This comes only weeks after attempts to kick Sossion out of office, which was hatched by a group of officials opposed to his rule.
Sossion has not been in good terms with the government, through TSC, since he attempted to block the implementation of the new Competency Based Curriculum (CBC).