- Union officials say changes in representation affect long-serving members and could weaken KNUT’s bargaining power.
- The Nandi leaders argue that deployment to JSS should not automatically determine teachers’ union membership.
- They await guidance from KNUT’s national office while calling for intervention to resolve the dispute.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) has raised fresh concerns over the movement of Junior Secondary School (JSS) teachers from its membership to the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET), warning that the changes could significantly affect the strength of the giant teachers’ union.
KNUT officials in Nandi County said the transfer of teachers deployed to JSS had affected some of the union’s long-serving members and officials, whom they claimed were moved without consultation.
Speaking in Kapsabet, KNUT Nandi North secretary Josphat Serem said the union was opposed to what he termed an attempt to erode its membership through the deployment of teachers to JSS.
Serem said some of the affected teachers had served KNUT for years and contributed to building the union’s structures at the grassroots.
He questioned why their deployment to JSS should automatically result in a change of union representation.
“We are protesting the poaching of our members who have served this union diligently since its inception,” Serem said.
His Nandi South counterpart, Stephen Misoi, said the issue had created anxiety among KNUT officials, particularly because some of the affected teachers were union officials.
Misoi argued that teachers should be free to determine the union they belong to, saying the decision to move them should not be based solely on their deployment to JSS.
“We believe that this is a ploy to weaken KNUT,” he said.
He described KNUT as a union with a long history of championing teachers’ welfare and labour rights, warning that any significant reduction in its membership could affect its bargaining power.
Misoi claimed that about 10,000 teachers had already been moved from KNUT to KUPPET nationally.
Call for intervention
Boniface Tenai, KNUT secretary for Tinderet and Nandi East, said deployment to JSS should not be used as a basis for removing teachers from KNUT.
“These are teachers who went to school, earned degrees and were deployed to Junior School. This is not a reason to remove them from KNUT,” Tenai said.
He called on the Ministry of Education to intervene in the dispute and urged the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to avoid actions that could be interpreted as interference in the affairs of teachers’ unions.
Tenai said KNUT officials would continue pushing for a resolution and were prepared to take further action to protect the interests of affected members.
The officials said they were awaiting direction from the KNUT national office on the next course of action.
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The dispute highlights the continuing contest over union representation of JSS teachers, with their changing professional roles raising questions over which teachers should belong to KNUT or KUPPET and who should have the final say in determining union membership.
By Adrian Biwott
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