When veteran politician Masinde Muliro was alive, he masterminded the formation of organizations to be managed by teachers in a bid to woo their support for his political maneuvers stretching to nearly three decades before the curtain fell on him in 1992 at Jomo Kenyatta International Airport in Nairobi on arrival from London.
Top on the list was the purchase of the then prestigious Kitale Hotel that stood on a parcel of plot within Kitale town’s Central Business District (CBD) and owned by the Trans Nzoia Investment Company (TIC) where he himself served once as director.
This is where more than the 3,000 primary and secondary school teachers could meet to draw strategies both for their welfare and political destiny.
This led to the coming of more entities, welfare associations and SACCOs owned by the teaching fraternity further to the long-standing Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT).
But as fate would dictate, TIC finally came to its knees when its officials; the late Erustus Khaemba and Masaba Mulefu – both former councilors – and Ronald Sawenja purportedly sold to Asian tycoon Dodhia Vipul part of the company’s plot that housed Kitale Hotel, thus ending the long history of the eatery that was on the international grid of tourism and the Safari Rally.
Under the guidance of pioneer teachers such as James Sifuna, Pius Opimo, Mutondo wa Mutondo, Ben Simiyu, Ishmael Masinde and the KNUT branch Executive Secretary Emmanuel Wanyonyi, the teachers went on a spree to open more business outlets.
This is when entities like the Trans Nzoia Teachers Enterprise Tent, Trans Nzoia Teachers Consumers Company, Trans Nzoia Teachers Housing Cooperative Society and Trans Nzoia Teachers SACCO opened their doors to the public.
The SACCO entity has since been renamed Trans Nzoia Times SACCO, opening space for clients from the non-teaching core. The lending organization is also operating banks deposits in addition to operating branches in Kiminini, Endebess and Cherangany sub-counties to expand their operations.
Then came the Trans Nzoia Burial and Benevolent Fund – an arm of KNUT, the Trans Nzoia Primary Teachers Association (TPTA) and their secondary school counterparts.
KUPPET under the leadership of Chairman Eliud Wafula and the Executive Secretary Furaha Lusweti, now in office for the second term running, have withered storms of time to remain steady. Lusweti is also the MCA for Waitaluk ward having been elected on the Ford-Kenya party ticket during the August 9, 2022 General Elections.
While some secondary school teachers are still subscribing to KNUT, the rival KUPPET has been able to maintain and raise its membership because of holding its elections regularly as opposed to other teachers’ enterprises.
According to Wafula, KUPPET has always stood with teachers at the time of harassment, promotions and illegal transfers, the reason why the union has grown strong since inception.
Today, the once-famed Kitale Hotel is no more; the Tent enterprise has sold off all its assets without giving out dividends to shareholders; the Consumers group has closed shop for its agri-business while the Housing Cooperative stopped issuing plots to members several years ago.
But what could have been the exact reason(s) behind the collapsing and folding of the teachers’ organizations? Could they have been operating within harsh economic times or under an un-enabling political environment?
First it was under the KANU one-party rule of President Daniel Moi before it rolled to Mwai Kibaki and later Uhuru Kenyatta. Upon devolution in 2010, the teachers’ organization survived under Governor Patrick Khaemba for a decade where the groups received little attention.
All eyes are now fixated on current political leadership under Governor George Natembeya. And how have the seven incumbent legislators approaching the teachers’ investments? Are they in support of the education reforms and the enhancement of the welfare of the teaching fraternity?
For a start, Natembeya is fully committed to improvement of education as one of his top agenda in his manifesto as recently confirmed when he launched the Elimu Bursary Fund which was banished from manipulation by local MCAs.
Natembeya’s recognition for the support of teachers’ in the development of the county was first demonstrated when he formed his government by appointing career teachers to head the department of Education – CEC Julie Kichwen and COO Jane Masika as well as CEC Janerose Nasimiyu who was sourced from KUPPET for the Lands docket.
Second on the radar for committed politicians for education is the Kiminini MP Kakai Bisau who despite inheriting challenges from the former NG-CDF, he has proposed for a procedure where poor and needy students should not benefit from double allocation from county government and constituency bursaries.
Bisau is followed by his Saboti counterpart Caleb Amisi who recently cleaned his NG-CDF office by uprooting officials engaged in wrongful allocation of bursaries and the Endebess representative Dr. Robert Pukose comes in the third position by having resolved every secondary school in his constituency to own a bus in addition to bursaries.
MPs Patrick Simiyu (Cherangany) and Ferdinand Wanyonyi (Kwanza) are yet to avail their respective education priorities.
A retired teacher Phillip Waweru who was allegedly delisted as a member of Tent says tribalism, corruption and failure to hold AGMs are some of the reasons that had led to non-commitment of teachers towards investment.
To date, Tent has never paid out dividends to members for the last ten years and some have died without the benefits and their siblings are urging the county government to stop transfers of assets to new purchasers.
A splinter group from Tent calling itself Tuwan Retired Teachers Association is gearing to take over some of the parent’s assets in a bid to reclaim their target of the members to create wealth.
Investigations revealed that most teachers were seeking external transfers while others were withdrawing their membership citing no confidence in leadership of the entities which are dominated by Bukusu officials at the expense of teachers from other communities. However, the number of Bukusu teachers remains high compared to the other tribes, an issue that becomes hard to break during elections.
The Trans Nzoia Secondary School Teachers Association started experiencing low membership immediately its Chairman, former Bwake Boys Secondary School principal Bernard Lukuya, was transferred to Musingu Boys Secondary School in Kakamega County.
It was followed by the political scandal where Lukuya’s successor Bethwell Kirior attempted to join politics by becoming the running mate of former Kiminini MP Dr. Chris Wamalwa for the governor’s race during the 2022 polls, before it was discovered that he had not resigned from the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) payroll before engaging in elective politics.
All in all, teachers in Trans Nzoia are trying to find a common ground where they can agitate for their interests as was the case in the past period spanning over three decades.
By Amos Kegode
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