Teachers roll out Kuppet election campaigns in Nyamira

Campaigns for the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) elections set for February are in high gear in Nyamira County.

Some of the teachers said the campaigns will evolve into a national network against the incumbent officials of the union.

More than 500 teachers on Sunday met in Nyamira Town where they launched the campaigns which they said will be expanded to other counties. This is to grab the necessary numbers to remove the current officeholders whom they blamed for failing to address the plight of members.

Among the issues which they said were yet to be properly addressed included the health insurance scheme which they said was ineffective to the members.

"We have been in darkness especially on the issue of insurance with the flow of information to us being a major challenge. All that we need now is to have the leadership changed for us to be contented," Stella Moturi, an aspirant for the seat of Nyamira branch treasurer said.

The teachers aspiring for various seats cited stagnation of teachers in job grades, lack of proper accountability and failure to articulate issues affecting teachers among the matters that needed to be addressed by a new set of leaders.

"It’s pitiable that most of the teachers serving have stagnated in one job group for a very long time without promotions. This is because we have a team that either doesn't want to articulate or are not aware of them," Evans Matuga, an aspiring branch organizing secretary said.

They also said the current officeholders were not sharing information well to the members, something they said was against the will of members.

Most of the members forming the network that will be campaigning under the banner 'Team Refreshing Change' are fresh aspirants who say are motivated to impact a change of Kuppet's leadership.

They included Joseph Sonye(Executive Secretary), Evans Matuga(Branch Organising secretary), Stella Moturi(Branch Treasurer), Segera Festus (Chairman), Linet Boyani (Secretary, Secondary) and Nancy Ongaki(Secretary, Gender).

The elections will be conducted on February 19, 2021.