BY ANDANJE WAKHUNGU
Supporters of the embattled Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) top officials clashed with rivals in a Kakamega hotel as the officials continue to be embroiled in heated campaigns ahead of the annual delegates’ conference and elections set to take place on undisclosed dates.
The KNUT national chairman Collins Oyuu who is spearheading his campaigns in bid to oust the current secretary general Wilson Sossion had just arrived from Vihiga county headed to Jamindas Hotel in Kakamega to meet with Knut delegates from the county when sympathizers and supporters of Sossion stormed the meeting and took to the podium and took up seats.
Efforts by the Oyuu team to eject them from the venue resulted in a heated shouting match with punches and chairs being thrown anyhow as the charged Sossion supporters stood their ground threatening anyone who dared touch them. Oyuu and his top brass watched in disbelief as the tussle unfolded.
The Sossion Knut Kakamega team was led by Archeadeus Liyayi (Knut county secretary general and his chairman Patrick Chungani who kept disrupting speaker after other in bid to show their solidarity to Sossion.
The commotion which took the good part of the meeting at one point saw unidentified man sprawled on the floor after being punched as unruly behaviour took centre stage.
It forced the Oyuu team to seek the assistance of the police who arrived at the scene, but found the Sossion team seated and calm after they got wind that they were could to be arrested. After consultation the officers cautioned them against disrupting their opponents’ meeting and that they either sit and listen or walk out as they were uninvited and it was not their camp’s meeting.
The meeting however continued amid chants and table banging from the opposing sides which however was ignored most of the time by meeting’s officials.
Later when addressing the press, Oyuu claimed that his opponent had paid his supporters to disrupt his meetings in Vihiga and Kakamega respectively but they were unable to deliver as planned.
“ I’m standing here today to say without fear that Sossion had brought people disrupt our meeting but thank God they came when we had already finished our mission and now here in Kakamega you can see the kind of unruly behaviour displayed by these union officials who should be teachers, hence setting good example,” said Oyuu.
“See how daring they were spoiling for war and yet we are campaigning not fighting, they have had their own meetings and we didn’t interfere why can’t the let us hold ours if they are sure that they will beat us? It is saddening to see a mature and respected person of their caliber jumping up and down banging tables throwing chairs here and there and threatening to beat up everybody in the name of campaigning for his favourite candidate and yet no one is threatening him, we are democratic and let us do mature campaigns and may the best team win,” he added.
Noted Oyuu: “As you saw we kept low profile because my team is comprised of mature straight thinking personalities who want to overhaul Knut from the top. There is no need to abuse the same government that is supposed to pay us teachers and the sad behaviour is what you have seen being displayed here, chest thumping at the expense of the teacher, this is why we want to bring in a sober team that will sit and talk with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) and government and agree on a way forward that will be of great benefit to us teachers.”
Oyuu said he had assembled a strong Team Change comprising among others: Patrick Karinga,(Central) James Ndiku,(Eastern) Ali Abdi Hussein, (in charge of IT) Rosana Mukangala (Coast) Kennedy Ondieki (Kisii) Stanley Mutahi (Kericho) who hails from Sossion’s backyard and who confessed that the dice was already cast in the region and Team Change will sail through.
Karinga who contested against Oyuu for the national chairman seat, but lost stated that he will deliver the Central votes to his Team change and dared their opponents to prepare for a bruising battle as they were headed to ousting Sossion.
“Oyuu needs a strong team to see him sail through and we are calling on all the teachers and Knut officials who want change to join our side and assist us bring back the glamour in Knut as a union.
