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Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) has petitioned the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to reinstate its members register or face a strike in the coming days.

Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion threatened that the union will call for a strike by end of the month in an unprecedented move should the TSC fails to return a full register of its members and pay the union dues.

Sossion accused TSC of meddling in its register of members.

Illegal move

He further blamed the commission of punishing Knut by denying them dues and illegally removing its members from its official register in an attempt to cripple its operations.

“What you are seeing TSC doing is to make you members shy and run away from the union.

I urge you to remain resolute during these moments of trial,” Sossion said in Kisumu where he oversaw the union’s branch elections on Sunday.

Consequently, he announced the union’s plans to introduce a standing order system of members’ recruitment, moving away from the current check-off system.

Through the standing order model, Sossion said, members will be able to finance the union from contributing directly at the branch offices and not the head office.

“Check-off is not the best way of running a free and independent union. We used to rely on check-offs until we realised that the government was using it to control us,” he said.

He added: “Each of one you (teachers) will liaise with branch officials to agree on check-off deductions and remit the union dues, with this standing order formula the union will be made even more accountable.”

Sossion also criticised TSC over circular barring teachers from participating in active politics.

While terming the directive as retrogressive, Sossion maintained that teachers are constitutionally allowed to involve themselves in political affairs and hence will continue to exercise their accorded rights.