The defiant teachers marched in towns across the country after ignoring sack threats by the Teachers Service Commission (TSC), which has instructed head teachers and county education officials to take a roll call. More schools were closed Monday as the strike that began on September 1 intensified. And in the Employment and Labour Relations Court Monday, the Kenya National Union of Teachers (Knut) asked the court to disregard the TSC until it honours the 50-60 per cent salary increment orders.

 The union filed its objections to the application by TSC seeking to stop the ongoing nationwide strike. Waving placards and carrying sauce pans, the teachers converged at regional union branches where officials addressed them and thereafter held demonstrations in the streets.

Knut Nairobi branch mobilised hundreds of teachers to march to Education Cabinet Secretary Jacob Kaimenyi’s office. The teachers, who gathered at the Knut head office mid-morning, carried placards and chanted solidarity songs as they marched along city streets. Knut Secretary General Wilson Sossion said teachers must now unite to push the Government to honour the pay deal. “We are now united more than before and let them know that we shall do all it takes to ensure we are heard,” said Sossion.