Kenyan teachers call off 5-week strike

By Andrew Ross

NAIROBI, Kenya (AA) – Over 289,000 teachers in Kenya who have been on a 5-week strike which paralyzed learning activities in the East African nation have called off the industrial action for 90 days.

The teachers have been on strike since August 2015 when an labor court in Kenya ruled that the government should give them a 50-60 percent pay hike.

Kenya National Union of Teachers’ Secretary-General Wilson Sossion told Anadolu agency on Saturday:

“The government will still have to pay us the 50-60 percent pay rise that the court said. We have called off the strike for now and teachers are to report to school on Monday at 8 a.m.”

The teachers union made the announcement on Saturday, noting that the month-long strike will resume if the government fails to address their grievances.

Sossion also demanded that employers, the Teachers Service Commission, should pay all their teachers their September salaries.

The five-week strike has been teachers’ longest ever in the East African nation.

In a few weeks, over 1.4 million candidates will sit their national examinations; they have asked the government to give them more time as they have been not taught, a plea which has so far fallen on deaf ears.