Treasury Says No Money as Knut bosses call talks to plan strike

The national treasury has maintained there is no money to pay the higher salaries the teachers are demanding.

“The figure that teachers are demanding was not captured in the Budget. Where will I get Sh17 billion to give them? Besides, we have an appeal whose ruling has not come out,” said Mr. Henry Rotich, the National Treasury Cabinet secretary.

Some KSh 17 billion is required this financial year to comply with the Supreme Court directive that the teachers should be given 50 – 60% salary hikes, a ruling that was affirming a similar one in lower courts.

On Monday last week, the Supreme Court ruled that the National Treasury should top up teachers’ August salaries with the 50 to 60 per cent pay rise.

The TSC has sought a review of two court orders, one by the Court of Appeal, which directed it to pay the new salaries by midnight yesterday, and the other by the Supreme Court, which declined to block the payments.

The application is yet to be determined.

 Knut Secretary-General Wilson Sossion said the union leaders would, on Wednesday, hold a National Executive Council meeting to decide the next course of action after the expiry of the deadline given by the courts. The council is Knut’s top decision-making organ.

If the government is to pay the teachers now, a part of the plans earlier advanced by the Treasury include increasing taxes or cutting on development expenditure in the budget.

The teaching fraternity, with more than 300,000 workers in the payroll makes the highest number of government employees with more than KSh 170 billion spent annually for their salaries alone.