The Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Nyeri branch has blamed Secretary General Wilson Sossion over the woes afflicting the union.
The branch executive secretary Zachary Mathenge said Mr Sossion antagonized the government, TSC and teachers, prompting the TSC to stop deducting and forwarding teachers’ contributions to the Union.
“Knut has undergone tumultuous moments of its life right from 2019 throughout 2020 and this might also escalate to 2021,” Mathenge said.
He was speaking on the sidelines of the New Fortis Sacco, formerly Nyeri teachers’ Sacco 45th annual general meeting held at the PCEA Nyamachaki grounds in Nyeri town.
The trade unionist said KNUT is a professional entity and posed: “who killed KNUT? It is common knowledge that it is one Wilson Arap Sossion, the secretary general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers.”
Mathenge noted that Sossion was running KNUT as a one-man-show without consulting other stakeholders messing up the once giant trade union in the country. He said that they had closed the branch office because of non-remittance of union dues and sent four employees home for the last one year.
“The landlord closed our offices and we are operating right from our homes and on the streets,” Mathenge lamented.
He added that this is an election year for all trade unions countrywide and appealed to all teachers to oust KNUT national officials who are wrecking the union during the special delegates’ conference slated for June 2021.
“If the SG (secretary general} is the problem in this union, let him be voted out,” Mathenge asserted adding that is the only way the union will be able to stand again.
The unionist cautioned teachers against electing a person without good negotiating skills to save the union from total collapse and also warned Sossion against interfering with the ongoing branch elections saying he should let teachers to elect their officials freely.
Nyeri Governor Mutahi Kahiga who graced the Sacco’s annual general meeting proposed that it should honour Local purchase Orders (LPO) issued by the county government to loan members awarded tenders by the devolved unit.
“A county LPO should be sufficient collateral to get a loan in terms of tenders we offer at the county. This should be an avenue for members to come and borrow and increase their revenue,” Kahiga said.
He added that financial institutions should come up with Covid-19 recovery strategies and offer loans at minimal interest rates to cushion Kenyans from the effects of the pandemic.
The New Fortis Sacco chairman Joseph Githinji said that the Sacco has Sh 700 million that belongs to members and would be given to them interest free to revive their businesses that were ravaged by Covid-19.
By Mwangi Gaitha
