The Mountain Journal
Murang’a ECDE teachers poured cold water on the efforts by the local county government detailing contents in the four-year contract, with the majority having returned to the streets demonstrating.
They returned to the streets on Friday, barely a week after they met the county officials led by Governor Irungu Kang’ata as they demanded to be absorbed in the permanent and pensionable terms instead of the four-year contract.
In last week’s meeting, Governor Irungu Kang’ata and his CEC Finance Prof Mwaura Kiarie detailed to those present how the four-year contract would hasten attainment of the SRC-recommended salary rates.
In the format, the degree teachers holders would, from July 1, get an annual increment of Sh 10,000, diploma holders Sh 6,000 and certificate holders Sh 4,000.
Led by their national officials, Mercy Nderitu (Chairperson), Thomas Kang’ethe (National treasurer) and their local representative, Wanjiku Mwangi, the teachers sang nursery school learners’ singing games, which thrilled the locals at the entrance of the Murang’a County Government headquarters before they said prayers.
They said the contract format should be disregarded as the teachers retire without gratuity, only to suffer in old age, compared to their colleagues under the permanent and pensionable terms in other counties.
“The ECDE are excluded from benefiting from the house and commuter allowance like other public servants; these are part of the anomalies that must be corrected,” she said.
They hinted that the demonstration will be held twice per week on Monday and Friday, as part of pressuring the government to address their concerns.
Murang’a teachers claimed they are being threatened by the county government for the negative exposure through the weekly demonstrations, as they are served with a show cause letter for duty absconded from duty.
Nderitu and Kang’ethe said since the Murang’a leaders are defiant into addressing the teachers concerns and meeting the union officials they will be attending all his meetings as a strategy to be heard.
“There is a scheme of service for the ECDE teachers of 2022, and it is only Murang’a that has failed to honour it, and always cite Wage Bill as a factor to ignore it. In Kajiado the teachers since 2017 were placed in the permanent and pensionable terms,” said Nderitu, the national Chairperson of the ECDE teachers.
Kang’ethe said the ECDE teachers have been demonstrating twice a week, as the county government remains defiant.
“ Monday and Friday have been declared our demonstration days as we shall now be attending Governor Kang’ata’s meetings to press our agenda to ensure we are heard,” he said Kang’ethe.
Scores of parents led by Sarafina Wanjiru, called on the leaders to look into the EDCE
teachers’ grievances to ensure Murang’a children are not disadvantaged by the interruption of their studies following the industrial action.