KUPPET Leadership in Wrangles over Retirement, case In Senate
In response to an illegal amendment to the union constitution, a member of the Kakamega branch of the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) has requested the Senate to support the union.
The sticking point is whether union executives at the national and branch levels should be allowed to continue serving in their positions after reaching the obligatory retirement age.
Elias Masika, a teacher who presented the petition on behalf of the union members, claims that the union has been operating under a constitution that members did not alter in a petition to the Senate dated August 17, 2023, addressed to the Clerk and received by the Senate main records unit on the same day.
Also Read:Â Teachers Rally Against Unconstitutional Changes By KNUT.
According to him, the KUPPET is a union of working teachers who are currently employed; it does not include retired teachers or those who have switched employers, been promoted, or been elected to positions in which they are no longer employed.
Masika claims that the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) defines an active teacher as an active and serving teacher who is still actively teaching and has not yet retired.
Contrarily, the bulk of the teachers’ representatives, both at the national and branch levels, are retirees.
In complete violation of the larger public service laws, others have shamelessly refused to resign their positions, according to Masika in the petition.
The deregistered KUPPET leaders are obliged to relinquish union posts, and their positions filled by other current serving and eligible members through an election, he continued, adding that TSC has a role in deregistering retired teachers and advertising the jobs.
He cites section 12(b) of the union constitution, which stipulates that union officials must retire at the age of 65. He continues by arguing that this age is unfair, illegal, discriminatory, and mocking of teachers who are still working, and he questions how a retired official can effectively assist a teacher who is still working.
Masika now requests that Akello Misori, the union’s secretary general, provide the Senate with the ages of all elected KUPPET officials and the dates of their retirement. She also notes that because the union officials are part of the larger national governance structure, they cannot act independently by disobeying the mandatory retirement age and the PSC (Public Service Commission) Act of 2017.
KUPPET Leadership in Wrangles over Retirement, case In Senate
