Kuppet registers 18,000 members

Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) announced yesterday it has enrolled 18,000 new members.

Secretary General Akello Misori (pictured) said total membership has increased to about 101,000 from 83,000.

Mr Misori said the new members are largely secondary school principals and primary school head teachers.

“Our online portal is jammed with new teachers who are flocking hoping to register,” said Misori.

He, however, did not clarify if the new members are those who have exited the rival Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).

Knut has recently been complaining over diminished membership occasioned by mass exits.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion accused the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) of hatching a plot to vanquish the union.

Mr Sossion said TSC has opened an online validation process for teachers on its website which is inclined towards helping rival unions - Kuppet and the Kenya Women Teachers Association (Kewota) - shore up their numbers at the expense of Knut.

Kewota said it has registered at least 70,000 members since its inception.

Senior officials at Knut said the union has lost up to 90,000 members so far, a figure that TSC is disputing saying only 45,000 have exited the union.

Knut has a total membership of 190,000. It has emerged that teachers have opted to quit Knut after TSC froze benefits that were agreed upon during the signing of the 2016 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) in 2016.

Others terminated their membership with the union so that they could be considered for promotions. TSC is currently promoting degree holders, head teachers and their deputies.

Last month, TSC ran parallel payrolls denying Knut members their salaries. It said it was complying with orders issued by the Employment Court that set aside Career Progression Guidelines rolled out in 2017.

TSC argued that the court ruling reverted to the old schemes of service guidelines that it had to adopt first before processing salaries