We are set for the strike, Knuts Wilson Sossion says

The Government has until Saturday midnight to implement the increased teachers’ salaries, Kenya National Union of Teacher (KNUT) Secretary General Wilson Sossion has said.

Should the state fail to comply with the court ordered pay increase-teachers will carry out a nationwide strike, Sossion said.

Speaking exclusively to Citizen Television from his Bomet home, Sossion added that teachers had exercised enough patience and that the strike was on come midnight.

Sossion, who declined to attend a rally where Deputy President William Ruto was holding on Bomet town, accused the government of conspiring with the Teachers Service Commission (TSC).

He asked why the TSC had hurriedly process teachers’ salary before the 20 the August, unlike previous months when the pay came later.

Responding to the DP’s remarks that teachers should exercise patience as TSC sources for funds to effect the 50%-60% pay increment, Sossion said that such remarks amount to insulting teachers.

In an exclusive interview Radio Citizen’s Jambo Kenya, the DP asked teachers to understand that due process must be followed in sourcing the money for the pay increase.

“TSC has to obey the law. There is a process of how to get funds. It is Parliament that appropriates funds to the Executive, Legislature, Judiciary and County Governments,” said the Deputy President.

The KNUT boss question the government’s rhetoric asking why the state could to pay off the Anglo Leasing debt with ease, yet they were frustrating teachers.

Sossion went further to state that highly placed individuals, whom he alleges the government is aware of, are evading taxes worth millions of shillings. Sossion argues that those millions, if utilized appropriately, could be used to pay teachers.

Sossion further warned the Salaries and Remuneration Committee to keep off teachers’ salaries should the deal to increase teachers’ salaries come to fruition.

His statement comes hours after the Chair of the Parliamentary Committee on Education, Sabina Chege has asked teachers to be patient as the government explores how to raise funds for their 50-60 percent salary increment.

Reporting by Reuben Motochi