- Okong’o has appealed to President Ruto to meet with retired teachers, comparing their untapped value to recycled scrap metal.
- He has proposed deploying retired teachers as fertiliser distribution clerks, baraza translators, border peacemaking elders, market overseers and advisors to elderly Inua Jamii beneficiaries.
- The President has been urged to consult former KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion on how to structure and deploy retired teachers without disrupting the current TSC system.
If I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President William Samoei Ruto, I will not ask for much. I will only tell you what I saw.
As a journalist, I mix with all types of people and visit many places because this is what my profession entails. The other day I was passing a jua kali yard and saw fundis recycling scrap metal, rusty iron sheets, bent nails, broken sufurias, old car parts. They were collecting them, heating them, beating them and making them useful again. The fundi told me, “Mzee, chuma ni chuma. Hakuna chuma takataka. Ikirudi jikoni, inabadilika tu.”
Your Excellency, when I looked at that scrap, I thought of our retired teachers.
If I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President, I will tell you that Kenya has thousands of retired teachers sitting at home in the villages of Kisii, Turkana, Kilifi and Busia. We call them retired, but they are not finished. Like that scrap metal, they have rust, they have age, but they still have the original material that built this nation. We recycle scrap, yet we have thrown away the teachers who made us.
Your Excellency, you have met clan elders, religious elders and councils of elders from all regions to talk about peace and unity. That was good, and we all applauded. If I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President, I will tell you: please meet the classroom elders too. Meet them as you met the clan elders.
A clan elder knows his clan. A retired teacher knows all clans, because he taught the Kikuyu, Luo, Kalenjin, Luhya, Kamba, Kisii and Mijikenda in the same class without ever asking their tribe. If you want national unity, who else should you listen to if not them?
If I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President, I will tell you that most of these people do not need much money, because they have seen it before. They have handled payslips, managed school funds and paid school fees for their own children. What they need now is not millions. They need recognition and comfort. They need to be told, “Mwalimu, bado unahitajika.”
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Just as a shopping bag is printed with “Recycle Me After Use,” our retired teachers could be whispering the same words. They are not saying throw me away. They are saying Use me again.
If I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President, I will tell you to recycle them.
Let them be clerks in the delivery of subsidised fertiliser. Today, farmers complain that fertiliser is diverted, that the wrong people receive it, that lists are cooked. A retired teacher in the village knows who is a real farmer and who is not. He is honest, he can write, he can keep a register. Put him there as a volunteer clerk, and there will be no theft.
Let them sit at the village barazas. When the chief calls a baraza, let the retired teacher sit next to him to explain government programmes in a language mwananchi understands.
Let them serve as border-committee peacemaking elders. Where the Kisii and Transmara clash, where Turkana and Pokot clash, where clans fight over land, let the retired teacher be there. He taught children from both sides. He has no clan bias in the classroom. His word will bring peace.
Use them also as market overseers, voluntary stage managers and custodians of culture in our towns. In markets there are fights and dirt. At bus stages there is chaos and abuse. In our towns we have lost culture. A retired teacher can keep order with respect where police and askaris have failed.
Use them, too, to advise their fellow elderly people who receive Inua Jamii money but waste it because they have no one to guide them. An old man will listen to a fellow old man who was once his teacher more than he will listen to a chief.
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And finally, if I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President, I will tell you to consult Wilson Sossion for his views on this matter. I know Mr Sossion has been a unionist, a former Secretary General of KNUT, and a nominated Member of Parliament. He understands teachers’ matters more than many of us. If I meet you, I will tell you to call him, not as a rival union leader, not to contradict this idea, but to support it.
Do not let this be seen as KNUT versus KUPPET, or serving teachers versus retired teachers. This is not about union rivalry. This is about national service. Sossion has fought for teachers for years. He understands the pain of retirement. Let him advise on how best to recycle these teachers, how to structure them, and how to deploy them without confusing the current TSC system. If you consult him in good faith, Your Excellency, he will not contradict it; he will add wisdom to it.
So my final message, if I meet you, Mr President and my beloved President, is simple: on the shopping bag it is written: “Recycle Me After Use.” Our retired teachers are whispering the same words.
Recycle the teacher, and you recycle the nation.
By Enock Okong’o
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