We're ready for strike, Kitui teachers say

Teachers in Kitui are ready to down their tools if the strike threat by their unions come good.

The Kenya National Union of Teachers executive secretary for Kitui branch Simon Ndingo said teachers are ready to join the strike from Monday.

The unionist advised parents to keep their children at home.

“Parents should know that their children are taken care of by teachers and since from Monday August 26, teachers will stay away from schools, the security of children will not be assured,” Nding’o said. 

Tutors will not be responsible for children who will go to school.

“Our message to parents is that should they release their children to school on Monday, they should know it will be at your own peril,” he told the media in Kitui on Tuesday.

While Knut does not wield the authority to instruct parents to keep children away from school, teachers will be away, hence children will be on their own.

On August 16, the union's national leadership issued a fresh seven-day strike notice to the Teachers Service Commission.

This was after conciliatory interventions failed to forestall industrial action.

Secretary General Collins Oyuu said the union communicated their grievances to the teacher's employer and the Ministry of Labour but no action has been taken thus far.

“I have today issued a strike notice. Teachers shall down their tools and withdraw their labour and schools will not open until this matter is resolved,” Oyuu said after a National Executive Council meeting in Nairobi.

“We have communicated to the employer several times but they have not responded.” 

He said all Knut branches through their executive secretaries should ensure teachers withdraw labour upon expiry of the notice.

The expiry coincides with the opening of schools for term three on August 26.

“The President instructed the Treasury and TSC to dialogue with the teachers union but the same has not happened. Let them heed the President’s directive by Friday or Saturday failure to which teachers will boycott work come Monday,” said Nding’o.

Teachers are asking the government to fulfil the commitment on salary increments it made to them last year, he said. 

“The increments were to be paid in two trenches. The first one was paid in July last year but the government has failed to clear the one for July 2024, as it had promised. That is what teachers are demanding,” he said.