West Pokot teachers threaten to strike over housing tax

Teachers in West Pokot have threatened to strike when schools reopen if the government deducts 1.5 per cent from their pay to fund the housing project.

They want their salaries reviewed and increased by nine per cent if the government will deduct the housing levy.

West Pokot Knut secretary Martin Sembelo said the government should have first consulted the Teachers Service Commission and Knut before making the decision.

“Our payslips are in the ICU. Teachers have taken loans and mortgages for development. We will not report to school because we shall be unable to put food on our tables and take our children to school,” he told journalists in Kapenguria.

Sembelo said the housing fund has no structures and is subject to corruption. "We are being made paupers."

HE said the only way teachers will support the scheme is if their CBA is reviewed and salaries increased to cushion them against the extra tax.

“Give teachers a salary raise of nine per cent straight and revise the CBA, and we will roll it out. The Teachers Service Commission should defend us,” Sembelo said.

He said cartels in the Education ministry are working to bring down teachers.

“We want to tell Education CS George Magoha that the ministry has cartels and the CS should move with speed to arrest the situation,” Sembelo said.

County Knut chairman Joel Partich said their CBA runs from 2017 to 2021. “We don’t want more taxation on our payslips till 2021,” he said.

The housing project is part of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four agenda. The Sh6.5 billion project aims to build 500,000 low-cost houses by 2022. The 1.5 per cent monthly charge from every worker will be complemented with a similar amount by the employer.

The teachers opposed the government's move to train them on the new curriculum during the Easter holiday and weekends, saying they won’t participate

“We want to meet with our families because we have stayed away from them for a long time. Why force us to participate in ministry issues during holidays?” Sembelo asked. 

Partich said it is wrong for the Education ministry to force teachers to train while the rest of Kenyans are celebrating.

“Teachers are not supposed to be forced to mandatory duties on Sabbath or Sunday, when they are expected to worship," he said.

"We are in solidarity with our teachers against the Ministry of Education, which is organising programmes that are violating the rights of teachers."