Nairobi News

Must Read

Its back to school, finally


Public schools re-open on Monday when teachers countrywide resume work after ending their two-week strike over pay.

Teachers are expected back in class amid claims that there was a split over the decision to call off the boycott which paralysed learning in public schools for ten days.

Knut secretary-general Wilson Sossion on Sunday denied claims that teachers lost out and that the union’s National Executive Committee members were sharply divided last Friday when they met to ratify the decision for teachers to return to work.

“Rumours that teachers lost should be disregarded as we still have a clear opportunity to gain from the ongoing process,” said Mr Sossion.

He also said all the NEC officials were unanimous in endorsing the decision to call off the strike.

INSECURITY CONCERNS

“As we had said before, we advise all our members to report to school (on) Monday, January 19, 2015 in the morning as we follow up on the progress of the judicial intervention being undertaken on this matter,” he said.

However, there are doubts over whether school children in Mandera, Wajir and Garissa will find teachers in school today after Knut told its members to stay away from the three counties due to terrorist attacks that hit parts of northern Kenya last month, leading to the deaths of at least 18 teachers.

About 1,000 teachers who work in the three counties have requested to be transferred to other areas citing insecurity but the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) has turned down their request, insisting that they must report to their respective schools in a week.

Both the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) called off their strikes last week to await arbitration by the Industrial Court in Nairobi.

The two unions are on Monday expected to file their memoranda with judge Mathews Nduma Nderi who is handling the case.