The Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has suffered another blow after union branch officials started submitting resignation letters to their boss.
The latest one is from Mumias branch where its Knut branch Secretary Mr. Wesa Malack has discarded his position.
Mr. Wesa who has served the union for the past fifteen years however did not expound further on the reason for abandoning his position.
Knut is suffering from both internal and external wrangles.
Many branch officials have been going without funds and are unable to carry services at the branch level.
Most of them are frustrated as they are unable to carry the mandate they are charged with due to cash crunch.
Knut through its Secretary General Wilson Sossion had complained that TSC is in a mission to cripple the union by unfairly denying it funds to run its operations hence crippling services in its 110 branches.
But the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) issued a statement on Thursday to newsroom regarding the state of teachers who are leaving the former giant teachers union in droves just a day after Sossion complained.
“Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has systematically continued to mutilate Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Membership Register with the sole aim of crippling the operations of the Union,” Sossion had said through a statement.
Sossion said TSC is mutilating the register of teachers so it can appear teachers are running away from the union.
“The Commission purports that members are quitting the Union out of their own volition without being enticed or coerced.
This is not true, TSC has stage managed the scene to appear that teachers are abandoning the Union.
TSC is forcefully removing KNUT members from the register with a long-term aim of making the Union not to meet the required threshold to be recognized as a union to represent teachers,” he said.
He said TSC is forcefully removing KNUT members from the register with a long-term aim of making the Union not to meet the required threshold to be recognized as a union to represent teachers
However TSC came out to respond to the allegations of killing the union by starving it with funds through downsizing its membership.
TSC through its head of corporate affairs Beatrice Wababu said the commission has no role in teachers who are leaving the union.
She said teachers leaving Knut are doing it willingly and TSC does not coerce teachers to leave or join any union.
She said teachers are leaving Knut so that they can enjoy the benefits offered by the Career Progression Guidelines (CPG)
“All the teachers exiting KNUT to other unions are voluntarily moving away to enjoy the benefits offered to them through the Career Progression Guidelines that Knut opposes in Court,” read a statement by TSC head of communications Beatrice Wababu.
Knut has been waging war with the teacher employer through unending court battles.
Knut has fought for its members to be retained to the old Schemes of Service (SoS) which the courts granted.
However many teachers left the union after missing the benefits that came with the CPG.
In 2016 Knut and Kuppet signed a CBA which run from July 2017 to July 2021. TSC said it developed CPG as an element of the CBA.
Most teachers under SoS have been disadvantaged as opposed to their colleagues under CPG.
Teachers under SoS are not eligible for promotion to administrative position. They also don’t enjoy the automatic promotions which their fellow do under CPG.
TSC said teachers in Knut will have to undergo TPC courses before getting any meaningful promotion.