Kenyan teacher strike continues

Members of the Kenya National Union of Teachers and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers, which have more than 280,000 members, are staging strikes after the government refused to raise their pay.

In August Kenya's highest labor court ruled in favor of the teachers and awarded a pay rise of more than 50 percent. This marked a historic victory as teachers' unions in Kenya have been fighting for higher pay for more than 40 years.

Their employer, the Teachers' Service Commission (TSC), went to court Tuesday to try and have the strike declared illegal and force the teachers back to work.

"Failure of some teachers to resume work has adversely affected the education of more than 12 million school children who have a right to be taught," TSC said in a statement.

The government has claimed that such a raise in pay would be unsustainable. President Uhuru Kenyatta said last week taht meeting the demands would raise the country's wage bill to 61 percent from 51 percent of the budget.

"We have to start looking at some of these demands against the economic reality. To pay more, we must be able to make more first," Kenyatta told journalists at State House last week.

The government forecasts a deficit of 8.7 percent for the year starting July 1 compared with a deficit of 7.8 percent in the previous year. The deficit and other factors such as a globally strong dollar have hurt the Kenyan shilling.

The Central Organization of Trade Unions (COTU) had planned a nationwide workers strike this week in support of the teachers but called it off to await the ruling of the court.

"We are not only showing solidarity to the teachers union, we will show solidarity to any other union in this country who we think has come out rightly to fight for their rights," Benson Okwaro, COTU acting secretary general, told DW.

He added that this case sets a bad precedent for Kenyan workers because the teachers had gone through the proper process in order to get a pay raise. That is why their union is taking steps to support the teachers.

"In the event that the court rules that we are legitimate then we will mobilize all other Kenyan workers to support our teachers," he said.

A teacher earns a basic salary of about $160 (142 Euros) a month and there are estimates that the additional salaries will cost the country $170 million.