By Kipilat Kapusia
Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) West Pokot officials have called out the county’s Ministry of Education (MoE) office over alleged discrimination, favoritism, corruption and nepotism in the ongoing teacher recruitment exercise lamenting that many local teachers have been left out.
The union officials are now calling for affirmative action saying that the county is facing a serious teacher shortage but teachers from other counties are being recruited at the expense of slots meant for locals.
Speaking at a press conference in Kapenguria, the county Knut Executive Secretary Martin Sembelo noted that the alien teachers later seek transfers leaving schools in the county with inadequate teachers.
“People come and take jobs and after a few years seek transfer to their respective home counties leaving behind a big problem of understaffing in both primary and secondary schools,” said Mr. Sembelo.
He noted that for many years, education officials have been giving out the county’s slots to their cronies and relatives but from now on they shall not condone corruption and nepotism
“We need all the vacancies allocated in our county as we have sufficient man power. We don’t want a scenario where our graduands are disadvantaged because their slots have been taken,” the Knut boss said.
He added: “Politicians should come and do oversight but not bring in their candidates because they will disrupt the exercise. This activity is only mandated by the Teachers Service Commission.”
Mr. Sembelo called on TSC to take disciplinary action against one teacher who took to social media to insult female teachers from his community.
“A teacher from Kipkomo sub county insulted his colleagues and used vulgar language on Facebook. That is unprofessional .That means that we have wrong members in the teaching fraternity. He should be investigated. His statements are dangerous and uncouth,” he said.
The Kuppet county branch Executive Secretary Alfred Kemuto called for promotion of acting teachers and provision of teaching opportunities to the marginalized community.
The sentiments were echoed by West Pokot Deputy Governor Robert Komolle who said that local teachers have been shortchanged for many years.
“They erase the names of local teachers saying there are no vacancies, then they bring outsiders as interns who are later employed permanently,” said Mr. Komolle.
However West Pokot County TSC Director Bernard Kimachas dismissed the allegations saying they are untrue adding that they have given priority to locals.
“The constitution is very clear that teachers can be employed from anywhere. Those complaining should come to our offices and not complain elsewhere,” he said.
This comes after TSC released guidelines for the recruitment of teachers as the commission looks to hire 35,000 teachers by January 2023.
