Teachers who joined the Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) on Friday, May 12, protested the housing fund introduced by President William Ruto.
While addressing journalists, the party said that some of it’s members already own houses claiming that they should be exempted from the three % deduction.
“We reject the three percent tax because our teachers have already built houses in their country houses.
While those who have not built houses have already taken loans for that,” Jacob Karura, head of KUPPET Embu branch, told the media.
Furthermore, they argued that the time it would take to pay for the proposed houses was unrealistic for teachers.
“An affordable house for a teacher costs about Ksh1.2 million. If you do the math, you will find that the teacher will pay for the house in about 66 years. As teachers, we have our plans,” argued another member.
However, the association commented that teachers had their own tastes and ideas of where to retire, complete with the design of the homes they wanted.
Some members said it was not wise to ask them to leave their rural homes where they raise livestock and live in the upper floors with their goats, chickens and cows.
Furthermore, they argued that the time it would take to pay for the proposed houses was unrealistic for teachers.
“We want to live in those high places, it will offend the teachers,” the members added.
As a result, they gave a deadline of 14 days for the Teachers’ Recruitment Commission (TSC) to intervene and ensure that teachers are exempted from paying taxes, whereupon the union threatened to strike.
on Thursday, May 11, Ruto defended the deductions explaining that politicians also faced the same pattern.
