The recently confirmed 46,000 Junior School Teachers (JSS) teacher are now demanding to be compensated for the time they served in internship. The Teachers, who whose terms were changed to Permanent and Pensionable terms by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) in January 2025, want full payment for the period they served on Internship.
The teachers have at the same time formed their own association Kenya Junior School Teachers Association (Kejusta) to fight for their rights; claiming that both the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) and the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) have not represented them well.
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The teachers accused the two teachers’ unions of barring them from participating fairly in their activities so that their grievances could be heard and addressed.
The national chairperson and spokesperson of Kejusta, Omari Omari, said after their conversion from interns to permanent and pensionable employees, several issues remained unresolved.
“We celebrate the recruitment, but several issues remain unaddressed. Key among them is the deliberate obstruction by the existing unions for us to participate fairly in the union activities so that our grievances can be heard and addressed,” Mr Omari says.
He says failure by the existing teacher unions to offer equitable representation for the JSS teachers would be an injustice.
“The future of the young teachers’ activism is uncertain; but what is certain is that even as we ebb and flow, we will not be stopped,” said Mr Omari.
Omari heaped praises on President William Ruto for recruiting thousands of teachers to bridge the gap.
“He has hired a whopping 46,000 teachers, the highest one-off recruitment in the history of the country. Even with the many negatives being painted all over, this is a major achievement that should be celebrated,” He said.
Omari says both Kuppet and Knut had little contribution in having their terms of employment improved by TSC.
“With no union protection, we took to the streets to fight against what we felt was an injustice. We won, albeit with a lot of intimidation and loss of two years served unfairly as interns. Currently, our demands have changed to compensation for the time we served in internship. The slogan is’ Seek ye first the job group kingdom, and all else shall be added unto you’” he said.
On December 10th 2024, during the Knut delegate’s conference in Mombasa, the JSS teachers demanded positions in the giant union.
Mr Omari urged Knut to allow them to join the union, with a demand that at least 500 positions be reserved for them nationwide.
“As JSS teachers, we have faced numerous challenges that remained unresolved due to the lack of union representation. We were advised to form or join a union to effectively voice our concerns. While we have the option to join Kuppet or Knut, we have specific demands that need to be addressed,” said Mr Omari.
In his response, Knut Secretary-General, Collins Oyuu, asked them to be patient as their demands will be discussed.
Kuppet has also tried to woo the vibrant teachers to their side by creating a special post for them through the latest constitutional ammendments.
