| SIAYA, Kenya, Aug 20 – Teachers countrywide have been asked to postpone their intended strike and give both the government and parliament time to pass a reviewed finance bill that will factor in their salary increment. According to Gem member of parliament, Elisha Ochieng’ Odhiambo, there was little that the government can do currently in the face of the rejection of the 2024 finance bill and the subsequent dismissal of the 2023 one by the courts. Speaking at Nyangulu secondary school in East Gem ward in Gem Yala sub country where he presided the handing over ceremony of a new school bus, the legislator urged teachers to go slowly in their demands and allow parliament to discharge its mandate. “I want to ask teachers…..let us go slowly. Allow us as parliament to pass the reviewed finance bill 2024 and you will be paid in arrears” said Odhiambo during the occasion that was also attended by Gem Yala deputy county commissioner, John Otieno. Odhiambo said no country can survive without taxes adding that parliament will play its role and ensure that the contentious proposed taxes that led to the recent protests do not see the light of the day in the reviewed bill. “The only taxes we did not agree with was a taxes on bread and sanitary pads” he said adding that he was optimistic that the new finance cabinet secretary, John Mbadi will soon bring to parliament a revised bill agreeable to all Kenyans. On recent cabinet appointments that saw members of the Orange democratic movement (ODM) join president William Ruto’s government, the Gem legislator hailed the president for the appointments that he said had united the nation. “In the last government, our party leader had a handshake with Uhuru Kenyatta but we got zero. Now, just a conversation between Raila Odinga and president Ruto, we have got something to make us proud as a community belonging to Kenya” he said. He called on the recently appointed cabinet secretary for energy, Opiyo Wandayi to use his office to rectify anomalies in the sector that saw some regions such as Nyanza lag behind in last mile electricity connections to the rural areas. “Nyanza has a 66% electricity coverage compared to Central region that has close to 99%” he said and called for resources to be channelled to Nyanza to enable it catch up with the rest of the country. |
Teachers asked to postpone strike, give parliament time to pass finance bill
