A fresh dispute has erupted between the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) over the alleged movement of more than 15,000 KNUT members to the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) without their approval.
KNUT officials from the Rift Valley say the affected teachers had already chosen KNUT as their union and should not have been shifted to another organisation without their consent.
The officials, led by regional chairman John Koech, accused some individuals within the TSC of working behind the scenes to weaken KNUT by transferring its members to KUPPET.
They said the issue had affected not only ordinary teachers but also some KNUT branch officials, who they claimed discovered that their union membership had been changed without their knowledge.
Koech singled out teachers who had recently been deployed to junior schools, saying some of them had been KNUT members before discovering that they were now listed under KUPPET.
“We are angered that the TSC is participating in poaching our members and forcefully moving them to other unions, especially KUPPET. It’s illegal to force teachers to join a union or organisation without their consent,” Koech said.
He maintained that the teachers had made their choice to join KNUT long before the alleged transfers and questioned why they were being moved to another union without their approval.
Koech warned that the union would not remain silent if the alleged transfers continued, urging TSC Chief Executive Everleen Mitei to intervene.
“We are asking the CEO at TSC to stop what is going on, failure to which we will mobilise our members to take action so that we save our union,” he said.
Koech and Simon Tuwei, a KNUT member of the national executive council, further accused some KUPPET officials of working together with certain TSC officials in an alleged effort to weaken KNUT.
Tuwei said the union had grown tired of what he described as the poaching of its members and indicated that KNUT could soon identify some TSC commissioners it alleges are involved in the matter.
He said KNUT had no dispute with Mitei personally but claimed that some commissioners were secretly involved in efforts to undermine the union.
The officials' claims, however, were rejected by the TSC's explanation of the transfers.
Mitei said the commission was acting on a court order that directed it to move deductions for some teachers from KNUT to KUPPET.
“We are not siding with any union, but when there is a court order, there is nothing else we can do,” Mitei said.
Koech also issued a warning to KUPPET, saying KNUT would take action over what its officials regard as interference with their membership.
“KNUT is the mother union in this country, and we ask KUPPET not to joke with us. We will curse them and take action that will make them respect us,” Koech said.