Embakasi East MP Babu Owino has vowed to lead nationwide protests if Board of Management (BoM) teachers are not paid as soon as possible.
The vocal MP says that the Ministry of Education has been giving the teachers fake promises and has defied an order by President Uhuru Kenyatta to pay the tutors.
“Failure to pay BOM Teachers will lead to a peaceful nation wide demonstration that is better imagined than experienced.I will personally lead the mother and father of all demonstrations and all roads will be blocked on a daily basis,” said Babu.
Mid August, the government announced that it had released Ksh2.2 billion to pay salaries of teachers employed by the Boards of Management (BoM) and non-teaching staff, such as security personnel.
“We will demand for teargas if we can’t demand for money. Pockets of BoM teachers are shy and they must be made to smile,” added Babu.
https://www.facebook.com/babuowinongili/videos/240637537283054
Over 43,000 teachers working under BoM agreements in public schools have not been paid since March 2020, when the first case of Covid-19 was confirmed in Kenya.
Education Principal Secretary Belio Kipsang said that only teachers that were on schools’ payrolls by March 15 would be paid as from August 2020 to December.
“Each teacher must sign for the money personally and records must be kept for later auditing,” said Kipsang.
This comes days after Education CAS Zack Kinuthia announced that the Ministry was through with verifying data from schools that had been submitted to the government.
Read: Pay For BOM Teachers Delayed Due To Unverified Data – CAS Zack Kinuthia
“I can confirm to you that verification was completed yesterday(Monday, August24). No more issues emanating from that. And that approval was done to release money,” wrote Kinuthia on his Facebook page.
Initially, Kinuthia had indicated that the money was delayed due to unverified data from school heads.
In a Facebook post, Kinuthia said that the ministry received data from school heads that conflicted the data held by the Teachers’ Service Commission (TSC).
“What is holding the money is the Unverified data that was submitted to us from the field, vis-a-viz the data we have with the Commission. From the onset, I want to say that we received a humongous list from the field, including teachers who are not enrolled with TSC. This means, Heads of Schools sent untrue, or illegitimate data, which meant that money would have gone to the wrong people, or more people than is the reality, denying the genuine beneficiaries the right,” wrote Kinuthia.
The government had initially indicated that the money for the teachers who have gone for over five months without pay would be released by the end of July.
“This is more of concern to me, because over 90% of these teachers are Youth like I am. And I can’t be comfortable and restful while you wallow in distress. I have heard your cries. I have read your painful stories out of over 4 months without pay,” added Kinuthia.
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