Trade Unions Congress of Kenya threatens to remove TSC bosses

Trade Unions Congress of Kenya Secretary General Wilson Sossion. [Boniface Okendo, Standard]

Three MPs on Monday led a demonstration to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) headquarters amid reports that more than 250 schools had been closed in Wajir County.

Meanwhile, the Trade Unions Congress of Kenya (TUC-Ke) Monday demanded that TSC revokes a plan to hire 900 teachers to be posted to the county, and instead hire locals to teach in the region that has suffered the brunt of terrorism.

Ahmed Kolosh (Wajir West), Rashid Kassim (Wajir East) and Ahmed Abdisalan (Wajir North) led residents to TSC offices in Nairobi's Upper Hill to seek audience with officials following the transfer of non-local teachers due to terror attacks. 

The transfers follow the killing of two teachers in Qarsa, Wajir East sub-county.

"This is a deliberate attempt to continue with the marginalisation of the north by the Government," said Mr Kolosh. He argued that his constituency had never witnessed any attacks but TSC had moved teachers from the area.

Two weeks

The demonstration came as Wajir Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary Mohamed Bardat said more than 250 schools had been closed for the last two weeks.

"TSC has already closed down our schools by transferring 90 per cent of the teaching workforce. We have resolved with parents to close all schools because there is no need to keep students in class when there is no learning," said Mr Bardat.

Addressing journalists at Parliament Buildings yesterday, TUC-Ke Secretary General Wilson Sossion said they might demand the removal of top TSC bosses due to the Wajir problem.

Mr Sossion said hiring teachers from other regions to teach in North Eastern region would not help because they would still leave en masse over insecurity. The union is proposing the hiring of local Form Four leavers to be trained on the job.

“Teachers must be drawn from that community. TSC should hire school Form Four certificate holders and train them while teaching,” he said.

The Wajir MPs accused TSC of marginalising the region.

"TSC has no security mandate. How did they assess the claim that the area was insecure when the security organs have not made such a report? " Abdikadir Ukash, one of the protest organisers, asked.

Mr Abdisalan said there were no guarantees the teachers TSC planned to recruit would remain in the county.

"We will suffer a similar fate as that of 2014-2015 if we do not create a sustainable plan to have teachers continue serving the public," he said. [Additional reporting by Moses Nyamori]