Education Cabinet Secretary, Jacob Kaimenyi has been warned against forcing the striking teachers back to class without meeting their payment demands.
Adressing journalists in Athi River town, Machakos County on Sunday, Machakos Senator, Johnstone Muthama, said Kenyan teachers need to be given respect that they deserve.
Muthama argued that teachers cannot teach other people's children from Kindergarten to secondary schools, while their own children fail to join secondary schools due to lack of school fee since they are poorly paid.
“Teachers cannot teach other people's children up to secondary schools while they cannot afford to pay fee for their own children in secondary schools,” said Muthama.
He noted that the gap between the rich and poor in Kenya was increasingly high, since a small percentage of those earning salaries had huge pay, while majority received peanuts as their monthly earnings.
The legislature called on the national government to review salaries of all civil savants and legislatures with the intent of deducting 20 percent of all those who earned more than Sh500,000 per month in bid of increasing salaries of poorly paid civil servants.
Muthama also asked President Uhuru Kenyatta and his deputy William Ruto to cut their allowances by 20 percent, reduce numbers of their fleet cars from 50 to 20 and utilize the difference to sort out the teachers and end the current stalemate in the education sector.