Education CS urges KNUT and TSC to drop hard-line stands

Education Cabinet Secretary, Amb. Amina Mohammed, has urged both the Kenya National Union of Teachers, KNUT, and the Teachers Service Commission, TSC, to drop hardline stands and negotiate to solve industrial disputes in the sector. Speaking to journalists in Nairobi, today, Amina urged both parties to embrace dialogue and avoid taking hardline stands.

“There is a negotiation that is ongoing. It is constructed on a conditional dialogue. We all have to learn to have discussions in peace. We must learn to compromise,” the CS said.

While advising that in negotiations it is a give and take scenario, Amb. Amina told both parties that it was in bad faith if any one party wanted all its demands met. “No one can walk away from a negotiation table with everything they wanted; then it is not a negotiation, it is basically a dictatorship,” added Amina.

This advice is coming as both the KNUT and TSC continue pointing accusing fingers at each other over the aborted Naivasha talks. The TSC claims that the KNUT leadership came into the meeting with a list of 85 teachers whose transfers they wanted revoked immediately, by the employer.

Speking to the media on Thursday, KNUT secretary general, Hon. Wilson Sossion, warned of dire consequences if the TSC does not come up with solutions to the contentious issues, in 2 weeks’ time. Immediate stoppage of the delocalization of teachers, scrapping of the Teacher Performance contracting & evaluation and promotion of teachers upon attainment of higher qualifications are among the issues fronted by KNUT for discussion.