The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) officials from Nyamira have applauded the move by President Uhuru Kenyatta in his Cabinet reshuffle to make Fred Matiang'i Education CS.
Two senior Knut officials have lauded the move terming it as ‘much needed’.
The Education docket which has been under the leadership of Prof Jacob Kaimenyi has been encountering a myriad of challenges with the latest being a teachers strike on September that saw children staying out of school for a month.
Speaking to this writer on Wednesday in an exclusive telephone interview, Masaba Knut branch secretary Meshack Ombongi and his deputy James Oteki were in an agreement that the new cabinet secretary is a team leader and teachers would work with him without conflict.
“I must laud the president for the much-needed change in the Education sector. We have seen him (Matiang'i) being committed to implementing a number of policies in the ICT sector and at times holding dialogue with stakeholders when needed. He is a team leader and I think that is a boost to Education sector,” Ombongi said.
Oteki concurred with him by terming the new cabinet secretary as a ‘flexible’ person who was committed to have things move to the right direction.
“As a long time teacher, I have worked with him in a number of boards from Gusii region and he is a flexible person who is ready to consider opinions of others. I don’t know how other teachers received the news, but I am very excited because, as branch officials, we have worked with him particularly when equipping our schools with the ICT infrastructure,” he said.
Matiangi hails from Borabu constituency in Nyamira and he is the only cabinet secretary in the Jubilee government from the entire Gusii region.