The hard-line stand by the Ministry of Education, growing outcry from 280 interdicted teachers and fears that the teachers’ employer was planning to sanction more officials forced the giant teachers’ union to back down on opposition to the new curriculum.
National Advisory Council (NAC) members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) who attended the hurriedly convened crisis meeting on Wednesday said divisions were emerging in the union as the interdicted teachers continued to suffer under top officials’ watch.
As Knut leadership protested the interdiction and asked Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to respect court orders, 60 more were sanctioned and their salaries stopped.
Speaking on the sidelines of the meeting, the delegates said the delay by TSC to reinstate the interdicted teachers had subjected them to hunger, accumulated bills and frustration.
A letter to TSC Chief Executive Officer Nancy Macharia by Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion on May 30 captured the frustrations of teachers and the union leadership.
“It is shocking to us that indeed you have chosen not to comply with the orders and that you continue to subject 280 teachers across the country to unnecessary suffering, torture, humiliation and total indignity despite the court’s pronouncement,” read the letter.
Delegates said outright defiance of the union leadership was emerging as the teachers increasingly got convinced that the union had failed to protect them.
It is also emerged that TSC had instructed its county officials to interdict any of the 440 union officials who would abscond classes to attend the NAC meeting convened in Nairobi.
