Since schools were closed in March, Mr John Obosi — a teacher employed by the Board of Management(BOM) in a public secondary school in Kisumu, has been struggling to a point of doing odd jobs to make ends meet.
With a family depending on him and no salary forthcoming, it hasn’t been easy for him.
“I’ve not been paid for four months,” he said, revealing that he has been forced to take up masonry work to make ends meet, which is also hard to come by in the current times.
“People [at the construction site)]don’t take me seriously considering that I’m a teacher,” Mr Obosi said.
With the tough economic times, paying his rent has become impossible.
“I’m lucky my landlord is understanding. But I know with time he might lose his patience and kick me out. I’ve many debts, including that of mama mboga,” he said.
Mr Obosi is among thousands of BoM and private school teachers across the country struggling to make ends meet since the coronavirus pandemic struck.
In Siaya County, a female teacher was recently arrested for shoplifting in a supermarket.
Some of these teachers have now turned to menial jobs to survive. From operating boda bodas to casual labour such as working at construction sites, they have been forced to venture into alternative income generating avenues.
Mr Owino Fida, a young BOM teacher at Liunda Community School in Nyang’oma and a father of three has now turned to fishing to earn a living. Each evening he joins his new-found colleagues for fishing expeditions.
Life has been difficult without salary since March. Before schools closed, his employer would promptly pay his dues. Not anymore.
“I decided to try a hand at fishing to save my family from starving. But the biting cold at night during the fishing expeditions has greatly affected my health, and I have been hospitalised twice as a result.”
His monthly salary as the BOM teacher was Sh10 ,000. “Now I earn between Sh100 and Sh500 per day as a fisherman. There are days I go home without anything,” he told the Nation.
With no school fees forthcoming, many schools are unable to pay the BOM teachers. Consequently, the Kenya Union of Post Primary Education Teachers (Kuppet) has petitioned the national government to allocate funds to cater for the payment of BoM teachers to help alleviate their suffering.
Kisumu Day High principal David Arot told the Nation the school will not be able to pay 30 BOM teachers and non-teaching from June onwards.
“For the past three months, we have managed to pay them but since we are not getting school fees, it is getting tougher,” said Mr Arot.
Kuppet Kisumu Executive Secretary Zablon Awange said the crisis has been persisting across the country, where BOM teachers have not received pay since March.
“A few lucky ones have been put on a flat rate payment of Sh5000. This has subjected them to pecuniary embarrassment as they are struggling to meet their expenses,” said Mr Awange.
In Bomet, a teacher who received his last pay in April said he has had to grab whatever comes his way as long as it puts food on the table.
“I am working at a construction site in Bomet town, where I get paid Sh 300 per day,” he said.
“Neither my colleagues at the site nor the contractor know that I am a teacher,” he stated.
A female teacher who recently landed a waiter’s job at a hotel in Kericho said : “It is not a walk in the park for most of us as we have to seek alternative sources of income to enable us pay for food, rent and medication,” she said.
The Kenya National Union of Teachers Bomet branch Executive-Secretary Malel Langat said the government should pay the teachers stipends. “TSC should compile a list of all BOM teachers and give them a stipend to survive on due to negative effects of Covid-19,” said Mr Langat.
“It is a matter of fact that BOM teachers are the majority in most schools…” he stated.
In Kisii, the Nation team found Mr Ben Maturi, a BOM teacher at Kisii National School, tilling his half- acre land. The Physics and Mathematics teacher who joined the school in January says he was excited and just settling down in his new job when things went south.
Last month, BOM teachers were informed that the government had not disbursed money to schools and hence there was no money to pay their salaries. “I immediately moved out of my rented house in Kisii and went back home since I could not afford rent,” he said. He now relies on his parents for upkeep.
In the same village, another teacher said she was also forced to return home after her landlord refused to listen to her pleas.
She said she can hardly afford basic necessities for her one-year-old child. “I can barely afford to buy diapers for her leave alone food supplements that a doctor prescribed for her,” she said. Over 20 teachers at her school were affected.
“The government has been doling out stipends to select groups it considers marginalised. We wish that it considers us too and gives us some money to keep us going us,” she said.
Representatives of an estimated 500 affected teachers in the county have appealed to the government to consider them as a vulnerable group.
Their chairman Ronald Rosana said most received their last pay in March and have since been rendered to destitute living.
The vice-chairperson of the association Evaline Omache said many of their members have had their houses locked by landlords after they failed to raise rent. “We have seen artistes being given Sh 100 million to cushion them during these tough times. Other vulnerable groups are also being considered while teachers like us have been forgotten. Let our government remember us,” Ms Omache said. The story is the same in Homa Bay County, where another BoM teacher in Nyakach has been choking under unpaid bills at his rental house for the last three months
Mr Victor Ochieng, a CRE teacher,is considering quitting his job as a teacher and has embarked on a search for a job in a different field. “I have sent several job applications. I am worried that it will take long before everything goes back to normal,“ he said. The family’s breadwinner says he would afford three meals every day when schools were still open. Not anymore. “My landlord is threatening to evict me,” he said.
Meanwhile in Vihiga, an MP is proposing the use CDF funds to cushion teachers in his constituency from the effects of Covid-19.
Sabatia MP Alfred Agoi suggests that part of the CDF allocation helps schools to pay BOM teachers.
But there is a hurdle. CDF funds are mainly meant for infrastructure development and bursaries for needy children, making it difficult to channel the money to salaries.
He said he is engaging the CDF national board to enable him implement his plan.
“We are finding out whether CDF can be used to pay workers engaged by BoM in our schools.”
Kuppet Executive in Vihiga Nebert Isambe asked the government to release personal emoluments to schools to allow active votes such as electricity bills, water bills, teachers’ salaries and other pending bill’s to be paid.