Title: Teachers, Union and Labour Relations in Kenya (A History of The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet))

Author: Akelo Misori with John Onyando

Publisher: Free Press Publishers Limited, 2020

Volume: 364 pages

Reviewer: Faith Matete

The Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers just finished branch elections, which were marred with violence and court cases, and its national elections are looming. It is, thus, a fitting time to look back at the two-decade-old administration through the prism of a book by the current national secretary general.

Akelo Misori has been a teacher for more than three decades and served Kuppet in various leadership capacities. He got into union politics by 2002, when he was elected as the first Kuppet Migori branch executive secretary, and rose to national secretary general in 2011.

With such vast experience, Misori, alongside journalist John Onyando, did the teaching profession justice by writing this book. It is divided into nine chapters, with the first two delving into unionism and Kenya’s independence journey and the place of teachers in it.

The third to fifth chapter deal with the birth of Kuppet, and the sixth to eighth capture teaching problems. The last chapter comes across as the author’s musings on the future of union and labour relations, not only in Kenya but across the continent and the globe.

When I picked the book, I expected it to only talk about teachers and safeguarding of their rights, such as remuneration and work environment, and leave out that solemn part of ensuring efficient and quality public basic education. But it goes deeper.

Misori hooks the reader with a tragic anecdote from September 23, 2019: Eight pupils died when a building collapsed at Precious Talents Academy in Ngando slums, Nairobi. The incident paints a picture of the dire state of education in Kenya.

The author expounds on a simple circular by the then Education CS George Magoha to close the school and all other schools with unsafe structures to show how grim the reality is for Kenyans seeking better education.

He compares data from institutions, teachers and students, and looks into harambee and government schools in the past, showing the need for access to education.

Misori shares his own personal experience in 1980, when, as a student at Alara Secondary School in Homa Bay, he led a strike demanding teachers be posted at the harambee school, but ended up being transferred to a better government school at Wang’apala Secondary School.

He shows that the same problems bedeviling education from pre-independence through the 80s to the present day are like history — it might not be the same but it rhymes.

He acknowledges that many teachers are yet to join unions but attributes it to protracted union leadership wrangles.

KUPPET RISE, KNUT FALLOUT

The most intriguing part about Kuppet is its formation. It was officially registered as a trade union on November 26, 1998, with Tom Chariga as the first secretary general.

A lingering perception is that the then President Daniel Moi pushed for its formation as he was tired of the long-running strikes by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut), including a 12-day strike in 1997 and a 28-day one in 1998.

Ever since, Kuppet has been tagged as government moles and saboteurs against teachers’ rights, an image Misori goes to great lengths to fight. The hostility between the two unions is still palpable even today.

Misori dedicates the entire chapter eight to the subject, where he is at pains to set the record straight. He shares a personal anecdote from 2005, when he was a teacher at Migori Boys’ Secondary School, which he served for 16 years. He went to complain at Migori branch official after a strike but was told to be satisfied with an increase on his payslip. It was just Sh180.

Misori says that from the 1980s, Knut leadership chose to ignore intern teachers, especially those in universities, who were harassed by the Kanu regime, adding that the union did not agitate enough for secondary and university-educated teachers.

Here, he even brings in Wilson Sossion in 2002 during a botched teachers’ strike when they were both students at Kenyatta University, him having being elected as Kuppet secretary general in Migori and Sossion as his counterpart from the Knut Bomet branch.

OPEN TO CRITICISM

The book contributes immensely to the body of knowledge on teachers’ unionism in Kenya over the last 50 years. Misori goes deep in his research, interviewing key players such as Tom Chariga, the first interim secretary general of Kuppet, and gleaning through Parliament Hansards, libraries and research records.

The book is written in an academic prose, with citations and annotated footnotes.

Onyando’s hand as a seasoned journalist and Misori’s adviser in the book comes out clearly when the book breaks into long prose of narration that makes the reader whizz through the pages in captivation.

But this combination between putting historical events on record and juxtaposing them with personal opinion makes the book to lack objectivity. Misori acknowledges this in the preface: “While I have tried to be objective, I will accept that this is just one narrative.”

He generously welcomes critics because he has personally criticised several union figures and government officials, and says such criticism will be a key lesson in addressing weakness for a better education sector in future.