Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers in Trans-Nzoia County, employed earlier this year are gearing up to challenge the current leadership of KUPPET at the county level.
Inspired by the recent Gen Z protests calling for fresh governance in public institutions, the youthful JSS tutors are determined to push for reforms within KUPPET leadership, which is currently dominated by retired and aging officials.
According to various sources, JSS teachers garnering for various seats in the Trans Nzoia Kuppet county polls set for February 2026 said they were facing a myriad of challenges which they believe can only be solved by the clique of the Gen Z-led leadership.
“The challenges will only be solved by voting in leaders who would tackle the issues differently from how incumbent leadership is doing. We believe it can be done- a new ray of leadership”, they said in a statement issued in Kitale.
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They added that the teachers should be guarded against influence from politicians to secure an investment of five years in office, the Trans Nzoia KUPPET aspirants called on women candidates, who have been passive of the union’s leadership by being reserved nominated seats, to come up in large numbers to compete with their men rivals.
“For the past 2 decades our women have been relegated to affirmative seats and this time round we want to have more say right from the counties to the top leadership of the union”, read the statement released by Juliana Miheso vying for the Trans Nzoia County Vice-chairperson.
For the county polls, three outgoing officials-Furaha Lusweti (Executive Secretary), Eluid Wafula (Chairman), and Janerose Katama (Assistant Treasurer) will be ineligible to vie after exiting the TSC payroll.
Both Lusweti and Wafula retired from the TSC while Katama joined the county government, where she is currently serving as the CEC member for Education.
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With the exit of Furaha, who was the linkman between teachers and the political class, there will be little influence from him except for the leaders themselves to go hunting for votes from individual teachers.
For Governor George Natembeya, who initially enjoyed support from teachers, the county boss now finds himself in a new landscape after firing some of them despite appointing them to serve in his government.
The Kiminini MP, Kakai Bisau ,who also worked alongside teachers prior to the 2022 polls was reported to be struggling to keep afloat with the teaching fraternity while his Endebess counterpart who topped as a politician supporting education in the county was said to having a free hand with teachers.
Little is said of the other MPs in the county except for Caleb Amisi, who has been in the forefront of distributing bursaries and the constructions of learning facilities for the vulnerable families in his constituency.
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As the Trans Nzoia KUPPET race gains momentum, approximately 1,000 JSS teachers and their allies have stepped to the forefront, with warnings issued urging teachers to vote wisely.
The recent coming on board of Everlyne Kiplagat for the Organizing Secretary has brought in a new twist with women declaring to support her against Aron Kimtai-“to spice up branch leadership which is inevitable”- as one supporter put it.
She joins a list of women candidates including Juliana Miheso (Vice-Chair), Cecil Nasimiyu (Secretary Secondary) and Vera Eyase (Assistant Treasurer). The women group expressed concern that the outgoing officials were siding with their respective rivals Mark Tum, Martin Wafula and Maxwell Nyangeri. However, the accused candidates have denied the claims, maintaining that they are prepared for free and fair elections.
BY ABISAI AMUGUNE
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