Sh1.5 million raised in Teachers Solidarity Fund CORD

Coalition for Reforms and Democracy (CORD) has announced that it has raised Sh1.5 million in the Teachers Solidarity Fund Kitty launched in September.

The kitty was launched in the wake of a standoff between teachers unions Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) on one side and teachers employer Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over pay increment.

In an announcement made during a public rally at Uhuru Park, CORD principal Raila Odinga said that the kitty was aimed at helping settle teachers’ salary demands, pledging a personal contribution of Sh100,000.

The standoff between teachers and the government emerged after a court ruling in July awarded teachers a 50 to 60 per cent increment dating back to June 2013.

The matter stretched for months with teachers staying away from class from the beginning of third term in August to push the government to comply with the court orders.

Endless court battles ensued, with TSC going to the Court of Appeal and later to the Supreme Court in a bid to squash the order.

The court however ordered teachers to go back to work and TSC to pay their September salaries in full. The court also called for TSC and teachers’ unions to hold negotiations to resolve the salary issue.

Despite the striking teachers returning to work on October 5^th, TSC still withheld their September salaries and their remittances to their unions.

TSC’s push to overturn the increment ruling that had been made by the Employment and Labour Relations Court later bore fruit after the Court of Appeal ruled that the decision made by the court was unconstitutional.

In its ruling, the court said that the lower court made a jurisdictional error and ignored the role of the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC), which is the only constitutional body tasked with determining salaries of civil servants.

Presiding Judge Erastus Githinji stated that the Employment and Labour Relations Court erred in its decision to award the teachers the pay rise as well as in the decision to backdate the pay rise to 2013.

In a bid to resolve the issues, President Uhuru Kenyatta last week held separate meetings with KNUT and Kuppet officials at State House in Nairobi.

President Kenyatta ordered TSC to pay the teachers their September salaries and to remit the monthly deductions to their unions.

The president also called on TSC and the teachers unions to work on a new collective bargaining agreement (CBR) within a month and channel the forward to the current impasse.

KNUT Secretary General Wilson Sossion, who was reportedly not invited to the State House meeting, ruled out any agreements between the unions and President Kenyatta saying KNUT will move to the Supreme Court to seek a reversal of the ruling.