There is a new hero in town. There are new villains, and there are victims. Justice Nelson Abuodha (and the Judiciary) is the new hero; the Uhuru Kenyatta administration, the Opposition, Knut/Kuppet and TSC are the villains; the students and parents of Kenya are the victims.
But the biggest losers are the Executive and Knut. After a month-long stand-off that was marked by vitriol, threats and counter-threats, Knut and TSC have been asked to sit and talk.
From the moment Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion announced the strike threat, many Kenyans looked at him with a jaundiced eye; hadn’t we heard and seen this before? What was different this time round? In fact, from the initial reactions, many including the Government did not take him seriously.
Mr Sossion was deploying the age-old tactic that was quickly going out of fashion in a liberalised market economy. No one can discount the demands of the teachers. They are legitimate. They deserve better. In the battle of hearts and minds, they lost big.
First, in a liberalised market economy like ours (you could call this over-liberalised); equal pay for equal work is the mantra.
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When the Teachers Service Commission sought to introduce a performance contracting model in the teaching fraternity, Knut issued a strike notice.
The proposal was quickly shelved. Yet that is where modern Human Resource is gravitating towards. Even parents who are sympathetic to the teachers’ cause are inclined to think of Knut as a rogue union protecting its wayward members. Yet accountability is quickly taking root in the country. Even MPs are held accountable nowadays.
For that reason, the refusal to be appraised left little wriggle room for empathy.
How Knut gets out of the current stalemate will define its future in many ways. I am sure they got into the strike with a clear exit strategy.
Whether they have achieved their main aim is neither here nor there, as long as the staggering 50 to 60 per cent pay increase remains a pie in the sky.
Back to my liberalised market economy point: Many parents, I included, will attest to the fact that teaching in most, not all schools, is mediocre. Most teachers put little effort in their work and most of the time will engage in private businesses like boda-boda, hawking and cattle trade.
Make no mistake; I am a huge proponent of entrepreneurship. So there is no problem with a teacher engaging in a ‘side hustle’. Such small enterprises keep the economy going.
The problem comes about when they commit so much time to it as to compromise the commitment to their core duty, which is teaching our children.
That happens and Knut and TSC know it too well. Let me say it again; how Knut exits from the current stalemate will define its future. Not even Cotu’s Francis Atwoli’s tirades will help them once the toll rings. Mr Sossion and company will have to think long and hard about the effective, least disruptive way of addressing industrial disputes.
When former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher took over the reins of power in the UK, she went on to annihilate the trade unions that had given much headache to previous administrations. I see President Uhuru Kenyatta taking the same strategy, not least because the cost of industrial action is beginning to manifest itself in the economy as most people pretend to work for little pay; Communist Russia style.
The effect of copy-cat strikes is huge. It breeds dissatisfaction and disloyalty at the workplace. The Civil Service ought to offer the best job options in the market. Not at all, it seems.
What Mr Kenyatta’s administration has succeeded in doing is portraying Knut as a greedy, uncaring outfit out to fleece the taxpayers of their money for little or no work done.
Even though they are not as clean, the Government side projected itself as willing to cede some ground when the going got tough, while Mr Sossion, always gesticulating, was seen as a tough negotiator with unreasonable demands.
If it stuck to the message of corruption and wanton wastage and other leakages in Government, it would have won more hearts and minds.
The Swahili have a saying, Vita vya panzi furaha ya kunguru. That fitted very well with the Opposition. The Governing coalition gave the Opposition fodder.
And it was not hard to see them do everything to bloody the nose of Government. But always tactless, they impressed less especially with the Uhuru Park theatrics of school uniform and unwarranted exposes.
