On 25th June this year, Wilson Sossion surrendered and bowed out of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) as the Secretary General. This is after putting up a strong-willed fight to defend his position.
In an interview on one of the Media stations in the country, Sossion expressed deep satisfaction with his performance for having served the Union for 20 years and attributed his exit to a malicious external force. He said the government turned colleagues against him with the promise of restoring union benefits, which it had earlier withdrawn.
“The government made it clear to them that I, Sossion, was the problem and that if I was removed, the union would be okay,” he said.
In 2015, the Union under Sossion held a 36-day nationwide teachers’ strike pushing the government to sign their Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA). Since then, the former KNUT Secretary General says the government has been fighting him for allegedly radicalising teachers.
In 2017, The Teachers Service Commission (TSC) removed Sossion’s name from their registry and a day before the teachers’ annual delegates conference in Mombasa, the Labour CS released a gazette notice asserting that Sossion was no longer a Knut official. This was after ODM had nominated Sossion to parliament.
However, Sossion has defended his numerous calls for strikes as a means to achieve union goals, criticizing the current Knut leadership under Collins Oyuu, stating that the leader does not inspire any confidence and is already making mistakes.
“If I were SG I would definitely not sign an empty CBA. I would not have even allowed them to table an empty CBA. I would have claimed the Sh33 billion recommended by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission for teachers for four years,” said the former Knut SG.
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