The Kenya Union of post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has called on the leadership of Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) to drop its hardline stand and sort out its differences with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).
Kuppet National Chairman, Omboko Milemba, said the current stalemate between Knut and TSC is not healthy for industrial relations, adding that the tough stand by both parties has left more than 200,000 teachers without trade union representation.
Speaking in Siaya town on Sunday, January 24, after commissioning a welfare bus bought by the Kuppet Siaya branch, Milemba, who is also the Emuhaya MP, said he is ready to support Knut Secretary-General, Wilson Sossion, in negotiations with TSC.
“I am urging my brother Sossion to come down and sit down with TSC. I am willing to lend a hand so that we go with him,” he said.
The Emuhaya MP called on Knut to withdraw court cases against the teachers’ employer as a sign of goodwill.
Milemba denied claims that Kuppet has been a beneficiary of the TSC-Knut stalemate, adding that no Knut member has joined their union.
He said that Kuppet was registered to serve post-primary education institutions and secondary school teachers, therefore, it cannot accommodate the bulk of Knut members.
“We shall not even invite them because if they come to Kuppet soon we shall be Knut and because they have high numbers, we shall lose the dream we have of representing this sector,” said Milemba.
