Pay tax to facilitate employment of more teachers, KNUT tells MPs

Written by Rosemary Wachiye 2011-07-10 17:17:00 Read 273 Times

Teachers led by the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) Bungoma East district Executive Secretary Aggrey Namisi have accused the government for not considering the plight of teachers in the country. The teachers said that the government has shown little in indicating it is concerned with their welfare citing the decision by the minister for Finance Uhuru Kenyatta not setting aside Sh9.2 billion in the 2011/2012 financial year budget to carter for the employment of over 18, 000 teachers on permanent basis.  Speaking at a prize giving day ceremony at St. Josephs Primary School in Webuye, Namisi said that the fund was to be used to employ more teachers and also facilitate the employment of teachers employed on contractual basis to permanent and pensionable terms.  “The government failed to place a total of Sh9.2 Billion funds in the budget towards the employment of more teachers as it had earlier promised,” noted Namisi.  He said that there were more than 18,000 teachers fresh from college that are awaiting employment and urged the government to employ them on permanent and pensionable terms and not on contract as stated before.  At the same time, the KNUT official challenged Members of Parliament to pay taxes so that the government could get more funds to facilitate employment of more teachers. “I call upon our leaders to pay tax that will enable the government to manage to raise the money and be able to employ more teachers,” said Namisi. By touching on the taxation of MP’s salaries, Namisi charged the area MP Alfred Sambu who announced to his constituents that he had paid his taxes amounting to Sh2.4 million. Mr. Sambu added that so many             MPs had declared their willingness to pay their tax arrears and urged Kenyans to stop wasting too much time arguing and debating over the tax issue and instead concentrate on development matters. Still at the same function, Mr. Namisi sauntered into the debate on upgrading of some schools into national schools stating that his position was that both Friends School Kamusinga Boys and Lugulu Girls should be left in their current status while urging the government to use CDF funds to construct and develop new schools into national status. Mr. Sambu who was the chief guest contributed Sh500, 000 towards the renovation of classes in the school that had been spoilt by a heavy storm early in the year “ Early this year I came to this school and found that the roofs of some classes had been blown off, I contribute this money towards construction of eight new classes, the remainder should be used to buy computers that will enable the start of computer classes in the school,” said Mr. Sambu.

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