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January 20, 2009.

MAPAMBANO SUPPORTS STRIKING TEACHERS

Just The Coalition government is, for the first time, being confronted by its first major labour dispute between the Kenyan National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the Ministry of Education. At the center of the dispute is a long standing pay rise package that has been dragging on since the days of the Moi dictatorship.

According to details of the dispute, the teachers are demanding a pay rise of Sh19.2 billion to be paid in one installment while the government is offering Ksh17.3 billion to be paid in three installments. The teacher’s demand mean that the lowest paid teacher will earn Sh13,750 while the highest pay will rise to Sh120,000.

According to the government’s offer, the lowest paid teacher will scoop Sh11,433 while the highest will be paid Sh71,338.

While the pay rise package could have been acceptable to the teachers, the problem is that the teachers have a history of betrayal on the part of the government after every negotiated agreement with their Union - the Kenya National Union of Teachers - which called the strike.

In 1997, a similar agreement was reached by the vanquished Moi dictatorship which also agreed to pay the increment in three installments. When the deal came to implementation stage, the Moi dictatorship reneged and the teachers ended up with a raw deal which left them with low salaries.

When the Kibaki-led Narc government came to power in January 2003, the Coalition campaigned on a platform of increasing the Teacher’s salary but once Kibaki seized power, he made a U-turn on almost all election promises, forcing the teachers to continue living on starvation wages.

When KNUT negotiated the latest deal with the government, the Union refused to accept payment by installment because the Union has been the victim of repeated deception after every deal.

The Union has been unable to accept payment by installment, partly because of the government’s extravagance especially when it comes to salaries of Members of Parliament whose monthly scoops are running to a million Kenyan shillings per month. The big question is: If the government has money to pay the huge salaries of MPs, how comes there is no money to pay the teachers?

It has been difficult for the government to convince teachers that there is no money to pay them because politicians sitting in Parliament are living lavish life-styles after increasing their own salaries to astronomical levels and tripling their basic allowances with impunity. Another source of anger for the teachers has been the refusal of the MPs to have their fat salaries taxed when each and every toiling worker in Kenya is burdened by taxes of every description.

What is the Government’s Biggest Worry?
The strike is also playing itself against a back drop of corruption in government with the latest scandals featuring theft of public funds in the oil and food industry. In a shocking revelation, it emerged that the Ministry of Energy collaborated with a corrupt Asian businessman to cat away more than Sh7 billion in oil revenue at a time when oil prices across the country have become unaffordable.

Another recent scandal worth mentioning is the “Maize scandal” in which a company whose share holders are suspected to be top government officials was awarded tender to handle maize at the port city of Mombasa. That was after money linked to maize purchase to address the crisis of famine (which has been declared a national disaster by the President) was stolen with the culprits still at large.

The government is in crisis because although it threatened to sack the striking teachers, it will be impossible for the Ministry of Education to find replacement for 235,000 teachers within a short period of time and this means that it will have to negotiate a way out of the crisis.

Another problem the government faces is that KUPPET, a rival teacher’s Union the government tried to use to divide the teachers, has suffered a major blow after teachers quit the Union to join KNUT when they noticed that KUPPET was on its way to selling out the teacher’s strike by being compromised. KUPPET was set up during the Moi dictatorship which, unable to deal with the teacher’s struggle under a United KNUT, tried to set up an alternative Union to compete with KNUT.

Traditionally, the government has managed to wriggle out of the crisis by buying top Union bureaucrats who then called off the strike after accepting peace-meal increments that ended up being dishonored by the government. It will be interesting to see how the dispute ends, given that the government is dealing with new Union leaders.

Another issue is that the government fears that a successful strike action that forces the government to back down could inspire workers in other government sectors to take similar strike actions to demand higher wages with devastating economic consequences. The truth is that workers in other sectors are watching the teacher’s struggle very keenly and it is possible that they may borrow the teacher’s tactics if they believe that they can also win, a threat that the government does not want to promote.

WorkerS Need to Organize Around a Party
From the point of view of Mapambano, the teacher’s struggle for higher wages needs to be supported by all Kenyans because teachers are some of the most exploited workers in Kenya who are burdened with a huge work load and paid peanuts by the government. Just like all workers in Kenya, and given the level of inflation across the country, teachers are living on starvation wages and their current struggle for higher wages is not only just and fair but also long overdue. Mapambano hopes that this time around, KNUT leaders will not allow themselves to be bought by the ruling classes to betray the struggle of the 250,000 teachers who have taken to the streets to force the government to bend.

Mapambano’s message to the striking teachers is that while the strike action is a step in the right direction, teachers need to begin engaging in active politics as a way of pushing their collective interests. We are putting forward the option of a “Workers’ Party” that could also vie for power so that critical issues about worker’s salaries are not just negotiated by members of the thieving ruling class which has an upper hand when it comes to implementation but can also be discussed in Parliament as a matter of national concern.

The issue of a “Workers Party” is not just an issue which teachers in Kenya need to consider. Workers across the country should understand that it is the tax they pay that is running the country and from the point of view of Mapambano, there is no reason why workers in Kenya cannot organize themselves around a Workers’ Party to try and seize power and run the country, not in the interest of the corrupt ruling class but in the interest of those who toil every day and pay taxes that the wealth grabbers are living on. We will be putting more ideas around the issue of a Worker’s Party in the cause of time.

Martin Ngatia
Mapambano Online