The High Court in Nairobi has given a green light to the Teachers Service Commission (TSC) to de-register the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) Secretary-General Wilson Sossion as a teacher.
Justice Stephen Radido of The Employment and Labor Relations Court dealt Sossion a blow when he dismissed Sossion’s plea to stop TSC from de-registering him.
Sossion had first challenged TSC order to de-register him in 2019 saying that the teachers’ employer was acting in bad faith.
TSC CEO Nancy Macharia told the court in an affidavit that it sent Sossion a notice on the intended de-registration and he did not reply within the 90 days given according to the law.
In his ruling according to the Standard, Justice Radido said that “Hon. Sossion did not directly challenge the process leading to the removal of his name from the register of teachers.”
“The Petitioners did not prove the allegations set out in the Petition…The Petition is found without merit, and it is dismissed,” the Judge added.
Sossion was elected Knut secretary-general in 2016 but had for years been serving as the Knut boss Bomet branch.
TSC’s move to de-register him was inspired by his nomination to Parliament by the Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) party.
Sossion in his petition cited a raft of issues that he hoped the court would consider in the case against his former employer.
Sossion wanted the court to declare null and void the regulations his employer relied on to deregister him as null and void and inconsistent with Article 38 of the constitution.
He had also sought an order prohibiting TSC from de-registering him and quash a gazette notice that communicated his de-registration for the teachers roll.
Sossion told the court that the move to expunge his name as a teacher was a move to frustrate unionism among teachers.
“The real motive for the action of the Commission was to kill trade unionism in the education sector,” said Sossion.
