Teachers appear to time their strikes to either coincide with a looming General Election ,schools re-opening or just before national examinations begin, which often results in a deal and making the strike famous.
The teachers of this country were subjected to different terms and conditions of service by the many employers they belonged to. The employers who included missionaries and local councils never allowed them to meet and exchange views. This kept them totally ignorant as regards to their rights and therefore were seriously exploited by their masters. Despite the fact that they were kept in the dark, they slowly learned the need to form organizations still based on religious sect organized to the highest at provincial level.
However by 1934 Messrs. James Gichuru and Eluid Mathu formed a teacher’s organization known as Kenya African Teachers Union (KATU). This Union eventually fizzled away under the pressure of powers of the time. This was because it was very difficult to organize an effective national organization of workers at that time because of communication problems.
It was not until the early fifties, when Makerere and Kagumo Colleges produced a higher caliber of teachers, which teachers’ organizations began coming up because these teachers communicated after training and hence learnt of the diversity of their terms and conditions of service.
They began by forming sectional or regional Teachers Organizations based on denominations or Provinces. E.g.:
(i) Nyanza African Teachers Union (NATU);
(ii) Catholic African Teachers Association (CATA) both in Nyanza Province;
(iii) Rift Valley African Teachers Association (RATA);
(iv) Coast African Teachers Union (CATU);
(v) Central Province African Teachers Union called Kikuyu Teachers Union (KTU)
Still, there was no way teachers could correspond with their counterparts in other Provinces.
In 1955, one of the teacher’s leaders from Rift Valley Hon. Daniel T. Moi now the retired President of the Republic of Kenya was elected to the Legislative Council (Leg.co.) now called National Assembly. He later successfully moved a freelance motion in the house in 1957 that the Government should help the teachers of this country to form one national body. The Government accepted the motion.
This made the Minister for Education Mr. W.F. Coutts invite all leaders to a meeting in December 1957 at Pumwani D.E.B. School. At this meeting, one teacherâs organization called Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT) was born. An Interim Central Executive Committee was set up with Mr. Ignatius Mkok as interim President and Mr. Stephen J. Kioni as interim Secretary General.
On 10th December 1958, the Central Executive Committee (C.E.C) convened the first Annual Conference at the Pumwani D.E.B. School. At this Conference, the KNUT Conference was ratified. The 1st National elections were held and Mr. Samwel Ayany was elected the 1st President and Mr. Stephen J. Kioni the 1st Secretary General.
On 14th May 1959 KNUT was officially registered as A Trade Union.