By Roy Hezron
All 110 branches of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) were expected to recruit about 1,000 teachers each as union members in a recruitment drive meant to increase the union’s membership threshold by the end of January 2022.
During the union’s National Advisory Council meeting held in December last year at the Nyayo National Stadium, the 110 branch Executive Secretaries were each given 1,000 forms to spear head the return of teachers back to the union. The recruitment exercise started on January 17, 2022 and was spearheaded by the branch executive secretaries in collaboration with their respective branch executive committees and school representatives. The union also dispatched officers in the national executive to coordinate the process in all its branches.
In a circular to all Branch Executive Secretaries dated January 13, 2022, the union Secretary General Collins Oyuu urged the branch bosses to treat the recruitment drive exercise with the urgency it deserves.
“We are targeting to have 50+1 membership by January 30, 2022. This will also help us in allocating the number of delegates per branch for the planned Special Delegates Conference (SDC),” stated Oyuu in the circular.
The union wants the non-unionised teachers who are currently paying Agency Fee, which is basically a government levy, to subscribe and register as members of KNUT and start paying union dues which will give them powers as members to participate in decision making including the election of the union leaders.
‘On behalf of the National Executive Council (NEC), we direct that our Branches should convene urgently to discuss recruitment of members back to the Union. Depending on Agency Fee is not secure for our operations as a Union,” added Oyuu in the Circular.
The Labour Relations Act of 2007 provides that employees who are not members of a trade union, but are benefiting from terms of employment negotiated by the body in a CBA, be deducted an agency fee.
The union has encouraged teachers to register to be KNUT members through both the Online T-Pay platform and by filling the blue forms as backup of evidence of the consent given by teachers.
The recruitment targets teachers in primary schools who left the union when it was on its knees.
It’s estimated that over 150,000 teachers who were KNUT members , left the union due to the bad relationship between the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Dr. Nancy Macharia and the then Secretary General Wilson Sossion
The bad relationship between Sossion and Dr. Macharia was as a result of disagreements on the promotion of teachers and transfers and implementation of the 2017-2021 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The union’s woes were deepened by leadership wrangles that led to the exit of Sossion, who doubled up as nominated Member of Parliament, who ended up resigning just a day to union national elections in June 25, 2021.
According to TSC data, in October 2020, KNUT membership dropped to 34,312 from 187,471 between July 2019 and October 2020. It further dropped to below 16,000 members towards 2021, a situation that paralyzed the operations of the union.
In a separate address to the media at KNUT headquarters on January 18, 2022, the union urged TSC to employ more teachers in order to address the problem of teacher shortage in line with Competency Based Curriculum (CBC) requirements.
About 100,000 teachers are required to address the shortage which stands at 84 000 teachers in primary schools and about 12 000 teachers in the secondary schools.
“We urge the treasury to release sufficient funds that can employ at least 20, 000 teachers annually for the next five years so that this matter can be addressed appropriately,” said Oyuu.
Oyuu said that the cases of mental health problems among teachers are caused by excess workload.
‘The indiscipline cases that have been witnessed in the recent past might have been due to the high number of school children against a small number of teachers who do not meet the expectations of both the society and the learners in terms of quality and access,” noted Oyuu.
