On Wednesday 2nd September 2015, the teachers’ strike officially kicked off after the Kenya National Union of Teachers and KUPPET endorsed the boycott and called on their members to keep off class. The Daily Nation newspaper reported on the same date, that the Secretary General of KNUT, Mr. Sossion had asked teachers to boycott work until the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) honours the 50 to 60% pay rise awarded by the courts. He said that the union would not hold any talks with the government, and would not accept anything less than the 50 to 60% increase awarded by lower courts and upheld by the Supreme Court. “We shall not move an inch below what was awarded and we will only resume duties when all this is delivered. We are not negotiating with the court orders,” Mr Sossion told reporters in Nairobi.
Comment:
Disobeying of court orders is nothing new in democratic systems. The particular case for teachers is after the Industrial Court ordered a pay rise of at least 50% which the government is challenging. Following negotiations that started in 2013, the teachers had asked for a 200 to 300% pay hike from their employer, the Teachers Service Commission (TSC). The commission in 2015 came up with a counter-proposal of 50 to 60% but the teachers rejected this. The commission then went to court, which awarded teachers the increase. In the Nation Newspaper of September 8, 2015, Union lawyers said in court papers that an application by TSC bosses seeking to have the strike declared illegal should not be entertained until the TSC obeys earlier orders to honour the pay raise expected to cost Sh17 billion. “TSC is in contempt of the court’s judgment, and has been cited for contempt of court through its officials,” said KNUT’s lawyer Paul Muite. On September 29, 2015, the Nation reported that KNUT, through lawyer Ahmednasir Abdullahi, claimed that they have reliably learned that the president of the Court of Appeal had handpicked the bench hearing an appeal the TSC had filed to give the commission a favourable ruling. Mr Abdullahi said that both KNUT and the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers considered the developments as serious judicial misconduct for judges to accept directions from the State. It is unfortunate that a government that was brought to power by a Supreme Court ruling was now ignoring court orders. This is not the first time for the government and the elite to disobey court orders. President Uhuru Kenyatta was the first to disobey the pay rise court order by saying can’t pay, won’t pay. Also while responding to the terror attack at Garissa University College which left 148 people dead and another 70 injured, the President ordered the Inspector General of Police to ensure that recruits whose enrolment was pending because of a court order promptly report for training at the Kenya Police College. On March 11th 2015, The High Court in Nakuru gave the Inspector-General of Police Joseph Boinett 60 days to settle down in office and then effect an arrest warrant against TSC Secretary Gabriel Lengoiboni who is accused of failing to pay retired teachers Sh16.7 billion as pension and salary arrears. Up to date, the order has not been effected. In another case, Senate Speaker Ekwe Ethuro convened a special sitting that unanimously approved the establishment of an 11-member committee to investigate allegations leveled against Embu governor Martin Wambora despite an order by Justice David Majanja barring Senate from debating the impeachment. The Senate later debated and impeached Mr. Wambora.
Disobeying of court orders is a sure recipe for anarchy in any system of ruling. Since Capitalism is based on self-interest for the mighty in society, it is expected that judicial decisions will be based on the will of those in power. Even when rulings are made which portray a stance of being counter to those in power, they are rigged to be immediately reversed when appeals are made. As for the Islamic system, there is no precedence worth mentioning in which rulings from the courts were disobeyed as those in power knew the consequences of such an action were too high to be entertained.
Kassim Agessa
Member of the Media Office of Hizb ut Tahrir in East Africa