For the last two weeks, Teachers and University lecturers have been on strike, demanding higher wages in the face of rising cost of living in Kenya. The teachers are demanding a 300% wage hike while University lecturers are demanding that the process of an earlier agreement reached between their Union and the government for a wage hike following a strike action last year be re-opened to pave the way for a pay hike.
Yesterday, President Mwaki Kibaki broke his silence over the strike issue by urging the striking teachers and lecturers “to be sensitive to the country’s economic status in their demands for pay rise”
The Kenya Red Alliance urges the striking workers to totally ignore the President’s empty pleas and continue with the strike until their demands are met.
This is because just like all workers in Kenya, Teachers and Lecturers can no longer live on their current wages. If there is anybody who ought to be “sensitive to the country’s economic status”, President Kibaki should be the first on the line. Despite sleeping at State House for much of his time or doing absolutely nothing, the President earns Ksh 2.5 million per month while the State pays for his housing, food, transport, security, entertainment, medical care, second wife and every imaginable activity he engages in.
Secondly, Kibaki has allowed his MPs to be insensitive to the country’s economic realities to an extent that the MPs have been increasing their salaries and allowances at will through Parliament. Recently, Parliament was refurbished and at a time when the country is said to be experiencing economic difficulties, the same government spent almost a billion Kenyan shillings on the purchase of seats that were fitted for MP’s comfort in the new refurbished Parliament.
Thirdly, the government has been wasting billions of Kenyan shillings in fighting a useless proxy war in Somalia. As a consequence, the war has attracted militant Islamic fundamentalists who have been terrorizing innocent civilians in retaliation through the use of hand grenades which have so far killed scores of Kenyans in different parts of the country and left hundreds of Kenyans with an assortment of injuries.
Instead of calling for “dialogue” with the striking workers, the government should first implement earlier agreements reached through dialogue between the government and the workers’ representatives. It is deceitful for President Kibaki to call for dialogue now when he knows that the striking workers have had tens of dialogues which have not produced any results because the government has been dishonest. What is the record?
Teachers are demanding that agreements signed since 1997 be honoured while the Lecturers have also demanded that agreements linked to the CBA of 2010/2011 and 2012/2014 be finalized as a condition for their return to work. The University Academic Staff Union (UASU) signed a CBA in 2008 with the universities council and the government committing to start negotiations on their pay but up to date, nothing has happened. In fact, the Kibaki government went to sleep as soon as the agreements were signed.
Over the years, the government has had a history of cheating workers into returning to work with agreements that are never honoured and it is important that the striking workers learn to understand that Kenya has a chameleon government that will never award them any pay rise unless they get more militant and uncompromising.
No “return to work” without pay rise
The Kenya Red Alliance urges Doctors in Kenya to follow the example of the Teachers and Lecturers by laying down their tools as soon as possible to widen the strike so as to put an end to starvation wages that have ravaged millions of workers across the country. KRA welcomes the Doctor’s threat to down their tools next Thursday if the last agreement between the Doctor’s representatives and the government is not honoured. It is time that the government is plunged into an even deeper crisis by the impoverished workers.
The politics of KRA is based on leading Workers to power and a collective strike action is one of the most powerful tools on the hands of workers against their thieving bosses. Workers should not be afraid of a government collapse through strike action because KRA is available to show alternative leadership with workers at the helm.
KRA takes this opportunity to congratulate all workers currently on strike while the Alliance urges workers in other sectors to join their colleagues by staging sympathy strikes across the country because deprivation of a section of workers in Kenya is tantamount to deprivation of all workers in Kenya.
The Coalition government must understand that workers in Kenya can no longer be taken for a ride as corrupt MPs like Amos Kimunya are allowed to steal billions of Kenyan shillings from taxes paid by workers. Since the Kibaki government took power in 2003, money that has been stolen by Kibaki’s hand-picked friends in government could have financed the current wage hikes being demanded by workers, majority of whom can no longer live from hand to mouth. The disparaging conditions under which workers live in Kenya is simply unacceptable.
KRA urges workers to view the Alliance as their Party and to begin preparing psychologically for a power take over as a way of solving the problem of starvation wages among workers in Kenya.
For more than a decade, workers have been taking strike actions and negotiating with a deaf government that is itself insensitive to the poor conditions in which workers live. Under the circumstances, why should workers sympathize with such a government or enter into fresh agreements which will be dumped in the bin as soon as they are signed?
Time for political deceit is over. KRA is firmly behind the striking workers because the Alliance views their demands as legitimate, timely, just, long overdue and democratic under the new Constitution which also guarantees the right of workers to resort to strike action as may be necessary. All workers in Kenya have a right to live on their wages and if this is not possible because the government has no control of prices of basic consumer commodities, workers are left with no option but to take strike action.
The next step following the strike actions is for the striking workers to form strong strike committees across the country and prepare for demonstrations as the government moves to intimidate them with the sack and other outmoded threats. It is important that the striking workers appeal to workers in other sectors to show solidarity with them by warning the government against taking any illegal action against the striking workers who are acting within the limits of the new Constitution.
The striking workers should also not accept any bogus deals between compromised Union officials and the government as has always been the case. There should be no bogus return to work formulas because all possible formulas have already been submitted to the government. The government must first act on all pending formulas before new ones can be reached.
Workers must send a clear signal to the government that they can bring it down at any time so that KRA can take over and meet all the demands to pave the way for a decent living standard for all workers in Kenya.
There should be no surrender to a corrupt, undemocratic, illegal and cheating government that is insensitive to the welfare of more than 15 million tax paying workers across Kenya. Without workers there can be no government and therefore, without a pay rise there should be no return to work regardless of the formula. Surely, there are times when enough is not just enough but is also seen to be enough!
Okoth Osewe
Secretary General
Kenya Red Alliance (KRA)
About the Author
This is the definition of failure. A government that can’t protect its people is not worth its salt. Our rotten, police force – fiercely resisting reforms – doesn’t even prioritize security needs when deploying their tribalized cops. Areas in dire need of security are left bare open…
Rather than the NSIS gathering useful intelligence; they’re either busy looting and hawking the Grand Regency Hotel or playing divisive political propaganda. These are not institutions to be relied upon to provide security – since they themselves have always been on the front-line killing citizens (re:PEV; re: extrajudicial assassinations).
Since 1997 Kenyan MPs have increased their salaries by 1200% & when teachers now demand just 300% increament, it becomes a debate. Education Minister Mutula hold your pen & do the calculation squarely!
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4157344954321515798