Adongo's Legacy To His Lieutenants

The Daily Nation, Opinion, 3 March 2001

Nairobi - Teaching is an essential service. That is why the Government and parents get so anxious whenever teachers threaten to call a strike over pay and other terms of service.

It was also the reason that, at independence, the teachers' industrial movement was hived off the main Kenya Federation of Labour (now called Central Organisation of Trade Unions), the idea being to prevent teachers from participating in the general "wild-cat" actions with which the employers associated the unions.

When a service is so essential, the ideal should be a situation in which the servicemen and women - in this case teachers - are so well treated that it obviates the need for strikes and other actions that may harm a young and tender economy.

In independent Kenya, no individual has worked as tirelessly for that ideal as Mr Ambrose Adeya Adongo, who, until the cruel hands of death snatched him away from our midst yesterday morning, was the indefatigable secretary-general of the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut).

Knut, of course, was formed before independence, the brainchild of such former teachers in the Legislative Council as Daniel arap Moi and Jeremiah Nyagah.

In colonial times, not only were teachers treated miserably but also - owing to the fact that they did not work for one employer - their emoluments were not uniform. Uniformalisation was one of Knut's early achievements, under the direction of its first secretary-general, Mr Stephen Kioni.

In general, however, independence did not bring many more blessings to teachers. Like the police - another essential services - their salaries have remained some of Kenya's lowest. To drastically improve the situation was Mr Adongo's express goal when he succeeded Mr Kioni in 1969.

And no one can say he and his lieutenants have left anything undone in their struggle to raise the living standards of Knut's members. During his tenure, the teachers spoke with a greater and greater unity of purpose, commitment to the education of our children and a better pay cheque.

It is from that pressure on the Government that the teachers have, from time to time, bagged increases in their salaries. On the whole, however, the Government has been very niggardly, often making cynical promises that only angered the teachers, lowered morale and, thus, caused the standard of teaching to drop.

It is deeply ironical that the man who instigated Knut's formation, President Moi, is the one whose Government has most trampled the teachers' interests underfoot. But Mr Adongo must have left a legacy to his lieutenants.

It is that the struggle must continue. Whoever is elected in his place must make it his paramount duty to force the Government to play its part in helping restore dignity and honour to the profession.