By Michael Oduor
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Nakuru branch is facing glory days ahead after thousands of its former members returned to the Union.
Speaking to Education News while flanked by the union chairman Mr. Joseph Bii and the treasurer Mr. Joseph Maina at KNUT’s office in Nakuru, the union’s branch executive secretary Anthony Gioche revealed that 4000 former union members have currently made applications to return to the giant union through filling the blue forms.
‘The union is targeting to register 8,000 teachers across the eleven sub-counties in Nakuru county,’ he further revealed
He added that due to the differences between KNUT and the Teachers’ Service commission (TSC), the union only had 1,000 teachers from the region as KNUT members.
He explained that the numbers are now increasing following the mass recruitment that is on course due to improved relationships between KNUT and TSC.
Gioche applauded the TSC County Director Mr. Fredrick Ng’ang’a and other education stakeholders in the County for the support they have accorded to the union in ensuring that teachers welfare is well kept.
He explained that union officials move from school to school talking to teachers on a one on one basis hence they have an upper hand in realizing the high registration numbers.
“The teachers are positive about KNUT and are willing to join this giant union,” he added.
Gioche urged teachers to register in large numbers for KNUT membership so that the union’s negotiation power when championing teachers’ rights is augmented.
In the recent past, the union had experienced a drop in its membership from more than 187,000 to 15,000 due to wrangles between the union’s leadership under former Secretary-General Wilson Sossion and TSC.
The current leadership has earned the attention of TSC attention and the teachers’ trust too. To solidify its unit, the union targets to recruit more members so that it has a bargaining power on matters of education.
If the non-members who have been paying agency fees to KNUT join the union, their payments will be converted to union dues and they will benefit from the union’s negotiated benefits.
