Kuppet demands teachers’ allowance

Kuppet officials Moses Nthurima, Julius Korir and Ronald Tonui at a Press conference in Nairobi Wednesday.  [PHOTO: TABITHA OTWORI/STANDARD]

BY RAWLINGS OTIENO and IMMACULATE AKELLO

Kenya: A fresh row is brewing between teachers and the Government over the implementation of the agreement to pay tutors commuter allowances.

This comes in the wake of reports that the Government has only released Sh3.8 billion instead of Sh5.9 billion to be used to implement the agreement signed last year.

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) wants the National Treasury to release the remaining Sh2.1 billion by July 31 or else teachers will boycott duty.

Kuppet Deputy Secretary General Moses Nthurima said the issues touching on commuter, responsibility and leave allowances were non-negotiable because the Government had agreed to implement the second phase at the end of July this year.

Mr Nthurima said there was no reason or communication given to them regarding the harmonised commuter allowance payment, adding that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) should honour the agreement.

“The Salaries and Remuneration Commission did an analysis and job evaluation and agreed to the allocation. We are therefore telling TSC to fully implement the agreement or it will leave us with no choice but to down our tools,” Nthurima threatened.

Last July, the Government paid the first phase of the commuter allowance and is yet to pay out the second phase.

According to Kuppet, commuter, house, responsibility and leave allowances were the main issues that forced them to boycott classes and they will not hesitate to use the same weapon should the Government fail to implement the second phase of payments.

Signed agreement

“What we want is for the Government to fulfill the promise it made last year through an agreement signed with the union that ended the strike,” said Nthurima.

Kuppet, in a letter addressed to the Parliamentary Education Committee chairperson Sabina Chege, Budget and Appropriation Committee chairperson Mutava Musyimi, TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni and National Treasury Cabinet Secretary Henry Rotich, wants the Government to factor in the remaining Sh2.1 billion for the implementation of the commuter and responsibility allowance.

Kuppet had demanded that the Government should allocate the proposed teachers’ leave allowance Sh7.4 billion in order to harmonise the allowance with that of other civil servants.