Primary school heads on Thursday ended their four-day conference in Mombasa with a call for unity amid rising tension between their union and their employer.
Kenya Primary School Headteachers Association national chairman Nicholas Gathemia said teachers must work together with respect and in accordance with the law.
“You want to walk very fast, walk alone. But if you want to walk very far, walk with others,” Gathemia said as he officially closed the 15th Kepsha Annual Delegates Conference.
He called for mutual respect in a statement that appeared an attempt to mend fences after the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) clashed with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
Knut secretary general Wilson Sossion on Monday addressed the conference against the wishes of the TSC, whose top officials quit the conference in protest.
Sossion and Knut were not included in the four-day programme and Gathemia was forced to sacrifice his time slot to allow Sossion to address the teachers.
“I would wish to request each one of us to confine themselves to the Constitution, make a good interpretation, respect our association, respect ourselves and respect others,” Gathemia said.
This was interpreted as a message to Sossion.
The Kepsha chairman said the Constitution guarantees freedom of association.
“No one is denied their right of associating with like-minded people," he said.
The chairman said teachers can be members of various associations but should not mix the issues of one association with those of another.
“When you go to other meetings, let us not take our Kepsha agenda to those meetings,” Gathema said.
“There is no way a Sacco meeting can be administered with our Kepsha constitution. Being Kepsha chairman does not allow me to go and gag the Sacco chairman.”
He said Kepsha is an independent body that does not work under any other umbrella.
“We are there to act and behave according to the written laws agreed upon by the government.
“As professionals, we are loyal to the government of the day,” he said in what could be interpreted as a loyalty pledge to the TSC and a slap in Knut's face.
He said Kepsha members will implement policies brought by the Education ministry and the TSC, which he said will always get support from the headteachers.
However, he said, headteachers will not blindly follow all policies.
“We need to sit down and dialogue on policies that we find are not fair."
Edited by R.Wamochie
