The Kenya National Parents Association (KNPA) has urged the government to resolve the teachers’ pay stalemate or face a legal battle from parents.
Speaking in Nyamira Town on Tuesday, KNPA Nyamira County branch chair Vincent Mbura gave the government a week’s ultimatum to act on the state of the teachers’ strike or the association will sue the government.
He said that the government had taken long to resolve the salary issue even though the Supreme Court had decided that the teachers receive their 50%-60% increase.
“We have kept silent for the last one week and the government is just sitting and watching our children suffer. Who will compensate us for the losses we have incurred owing to the fact that we’ve paid school fees that is running unutilised, the fare our children used to school and back home? We give the president seven days from now to act and pay the teachers or we take the government to court for legal redress,” said Mbura.
Mbura faulted the government for not complying with the courts’ ruling saying it was against the spirit of the new constitution. He told the government to respect the Supreme Court’s ruling because they are a product of the same court’s ruling which in the last general elections ruled in their favour after the opposition petitioned over the poll.
“We expected the government to comply with the Supreme Court’s verdict because it is the same court that put them in power. Why it is now difficult to implement the same court’s ruling, nobody is above the law and they must pay the teachers to save us the agony,” added Mbura.
Mbura said that the association is in consultations with the top leadership on the next course of action as the teachers’ strike enters the second week.