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Striking teachers to receive warning letters


The Teachers Service Commission has instructed county directors to issue warning letters to striking teachers.

The officials were issued with guidelines on punishing teachers who will be absent from Monday.

In a memo, TSC acting Director of Teacher Management Mary Rotich asked the directors to “intensify” monitoring of schools to ensure no teacher absconds duty.

“Prompt action should be taken in all cases of professional misconduct,” she said.

The official attached templates of disciplinary letters to be used.

She was referring to a circular issued by TSC Chief Executive Nancy Macharia that called for “elaborate surveillance mechanisms” in schools after teachers announced that they would go on strike from Wednesday last week.

The commission had advised head teachers and education directors to ensure union activities were not conducted in schools.

Although the TSC asked schools to resume their normal programmes, teachers vowed to continue with their strike.

On Sunday, Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) officials asked members to “proceed with countrywide demonstrations as planned”.

Kuppet Deputy Secretary-General Moses Nthurima and National Treasurer Njenga Mwethi told reporters in Nairobi that the commission has no “moral authority” to order teachers back to classrooms because it had disobeyed a court order validating their demand for a salary increase.

“The TSC has no moral authority to lecture teachers on how to follow the law.

“It has disobeyed the court, which is vested with powers to interpret the law,” said Mr Nthurima.

Kuppet, which has joined forces with the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), last week announced that tutors would go on strike after the commission refused to pay their salary dues as directed by the Industrial Court.

The court issued an order for teachers to be paid an increase of between 50 and 60 per cent.