11 November 2015•Update: 11 November 2015
By Andrew Ross
NAIROBI, Kenya
Kenyan President Uhuru Kenyatta on Tuesday announced an agreement he said would end an 18-year industrial dispute by the country’s teachers.
In a statement, Kenyatta said the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) and the state-run employers’ body, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), had agreed to resolve the pay dispute following a meeting at the State House in Nairobi.
“We needed to reconcile and we could not reconcile until we unlocked this deadlock,” he said. “The meeting has been fruitful.”
The president said both sides had agreed to withdraw pending court cases relating to the dispute and to open negotiations to come up with a four-year collective bargaining agreement.
He added: “Let me make the timeline perfectly clear: within one month of the start of this dialogue, I expect both parties to come up with an acceptable collective bargaining agreement.”
Earlier this month, the appeals court rejected a pay rise of up to 60 percent that had been awarded to teachers by an industrial court.
The ruling followed a five-week nationwide strike in September by more than 280,000 teachers following the government’s refusal to accept the award on the grounds that it was unaffordable.
The dispute, which has been punctuated by regular strikes, stretches back to a 1997 pay deal that the KNUT said was not fully honored.
Kenyatta also said the TSC should pay teachers their September salaries, which it had refused to release because of the strike.
KNUT Chairman Mudzo Nzili said said the union would submit to the conditions outlined by the president while the TSC called on all parties to consider the interests of pupils.
