Knut wants teachers' recruitment stopped over corruption claims

Some candidates who turned up for teachers recruitment. Knut Embu branch officials want the exercise stopped. PHOTO/JACOB OWITI 

In Summary

• Officials claim qualified teachers have been barred from applying for jobs in other counties
• Applicants have claimed that they have been asked for bribes

KNUT

By CHARLES WANYORO
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Kenya National Union of Teachers officials from Embu County want the on going teachers' recruitment exercise stopped claiming it was marred with corruption.

They said qualified teachers from the region had been barred from applying for jobs in other counties while their employer, the Teachers Service Commission had indicated applicants can seek jobs anywhere in the country.

Led by Embu Knut executive secretary John Gitari, the officials said the county got just 22 slots while it has over 1,000 trained unemployed teachers.\

He said this number could not be absorbed in the county and other counties were expressly seeking applicants from their areas.
He said several applicants from Embu county, some of whom graduated in 1999, had been turned away when they applied for jobs in other counties.

Mr Gitari claimed that some applicants had confided in him that they had been asked for between Sh100,000 and Sh120,000 from people with connections with the TSC headquarters, to enable them secure jobs.

CORRUPTION
“This exercise is entrenching tribalism and corruption. Some counties are now employing graduates who are yet to receive their certificates,” he said.

Mr Gitari said the country had a shortfall of about 112,000 teachers and urged TSC to compile a data on all qualified unemployed teachers so as to employ them at once.

He called for a special emphasis be given to teachers who graduated before others claiming some were attaining retirement age before they were employed.

“It is unfair that some teachers who have not even received their certificates are graduating while we have other who graduated in 1999 and are about to attain 45 years and are still jobless. Many have been teaching in academies and have adequate experience,” said Mr Gitari.

He also poked holes at the TSC move to deny primary school teachers who are degree holders but had not attained a C+, an express entry to teach in secondary schools.