• Union should be working with employer to address tutors' welfare instead of engaging in court battles.
• Knut will need new tack to win back members after pushing them to their exit.
The stability of the mighty Kenya National Union of Teachers is currently being threatened by the raft of confounding discrepancies emanating from its topmost leaders over the position of a secretary general.
To the union’s detriment, the baffling situation has seen a tremendous number of members defect their membership, a move that has left the union at the verge of crumbling down. As the fuddle escalates, disgruntled teachers question the union’s ability to champion their rights and address the pertinent issues affecting the profession.
Whether Wilson Sossion retains the position, teachers feel that a great bulk of his six years at the helm of the union has been spent in court battles with the employer as opposed to the core mandate of engaging the employer for the teachers’ wellbeing.
A strategy without tactics is the slowest route to achievement; in relation to the current problems being faced by teachers, which are quite different from those of the last six decades when the union was established. For instance, diseases like cancer, diabetes and HIVAids alongside depression and gender-based violence are on the rise.
Their effects are subsequently dimming teachers’ hopes in life hence affecting their productivity. This is indeed a crucial problem that the union can explicitly address by organising programmes that train personnel to reach out to victims across the country. In fact, the monthly dues remitted by the teachers can comfortably cater for this, on top of paying union leaders.
It’s high time the union placed teachers’ welfare at the focal point and shunned from hurling derogatory remarks that work against the union’s core values and mission.
Teacher, Machakos