Sharp divisions emerged on the first day of the primary school head teachers conference in Mombasa yesterday. The teachers differed on monthly deductions by Kenya Primary School Headteachers Association (Kepsha) and a planned nationwide teachers strike. The association’s national chairman, Shem Ndolo was ejected from the meeting by angry teachers who protested against the monthly deductions and accused him of opposing a planned strike.
It was a chaotic start to the week-long annual conference bringing together more than 10,000 primary school heads at the Sheikh Zayed Welfare Centre in Mombasa County. The charged teachers protested the deduction of Sh500 per month from their salaries as administrative costs to run Kepsha. They questioned of another Sh6,000 to attend the conference despite paying the monthly contributions.
The teachers also accused Ndolo of being compromised by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to oppose a strike called by Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) on September 1 to protest delocalisation of teachers in the country. The fracas started immediately Ndolo completed reading his speech in which he asked the government to allocate more cash to schools. But when Ndolo invited one of the event’s sponsor to the podium, the members booed and heckled him, insisting they had some problems about his leadership that they wanted addressed. Ndolo invited more ire when he told the protesters to stop “nonsense”, sparking an uproar in the hall.
