Kenya keeps schools shut amid ongoing teachers' strike

By Andrew Ross

NAIROBI, Kenya

As an ongoing teachers' strike in Kenya entered its fourth week on Monday, President Uhuru Kenyatta rejected striking teachers’ demands for more pay while the Education Ministry ordered that the nation’s schools remain shut.

“To protect children, staff and property at our schools and allay parents’ worries, the government has authorized the Education Ministry to review term dates for this year’s third term,” read a cabinet statement.

A spot-check conducted by Anadolu Agency in Nairobi showed that many schools in the capital – including a number of private schools – remained closed in line with the president’s directive.

In a televised address on Sunday night, President Kenyatta said the government was not in a position to give teachers the 50-to-60-percent salary raises they were asking for.

“To pay this, we would have to raise value-added taxes from 16 to 22 percent, borrow more money, or suspend critical development programs and essential health, education and security services,” he declared.

“None of these options is tenable,” he said. “Our country must live within its means.”

Within the last eight years, Kenyatta went on to note, the country had seen a total of eight teachers’ strikes, which, he said, had been purposely timed to disrupt the academic calendar.

In a few weeks, 1.4 million Kenyan students are slated to sit for national examinations, even though most have not been to class since the school term began on Aug. 31.