A member of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) from the Kakamega branch has now asked the Senate to come to the rescue of the union over an unlawful change of the union constitution.
The bone of contention is an extension of stay in office after the attainment of mandatory retirement age by union officials at both national and branch levels.
In a petition to the Senate dated August 17, 2023, addressed to the Clerk and received by the Senate main records unit on the same day, Elias Masika who is a teacher and who presented the petition on behalf of the union members states that the union has been using a constitution which members did not alter to manage the affairs of the union.
He holds that KUPPET is a Union of active and serving teachers, not retirees or those who have transferred services to other employers or promoted to other capacities or elected in other capacities.
According to Masika, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) defines an active teacher as a teacher in-service who has not retired and for one to represent teachers’ one must be an active and serving teacher.
“To the contrary, the teachers’ representatives at both the national and branch levels are a majority of retirees.
Others have blatantly refused to vacate office in total contravention of the wider public service legislations,” said Masika in the petition.
He argued further that TSC has a role of deregistering retired teachers and advertising the positions and that the KUPPET officials who have been deregistered are supposed to vacate union offices and their positions filled by other active serving and eligible members through an election.
He quotes article 12 (b) of the union constitution which sets the retirement age of union officials at 65 years, adding that the stated age is unfair, unlawful, discriminatory and mockery to those teachers who are actively serving; wondering how a retired official will effectively serve the one who is actively serving as a teacher.
Masika now wants the union Secretary General Akello Misori submits to the senate the ages of all elected KUPPET officials and their retirement dates, adding that the union officials fall under the wider national governance structure and therefore cannot operate in isolation by violating the mandatory retirement age and disregard the PSC (Public Service Commission) Act 2017.
By Roy Hezron
Get more stories from our website: Education News
To write to us or offer feedback, you can reach us through: editor@educationnews.co.ke
You can also follow our social media pages on Twitter: Education News KE and Facebook: Education News Newspaper For timely updates.
