Kenyan teachers hold firm

Primary and secondary schools have been shut for a week

By Andrew Harding BBC East Africa correspondent

In Kenya, many students are starting a second week without lessons, as the country's state teachers continue to strike.

The teachers are demanding that the government implement a 1997 salary deal, but the Education Ministry has refused and declared the strike illegal.

The press and public seem to be firmly on the side of the teachers.

Newspapers are calling the government's strong-arm tactics detestable and illegal.

Anxiety

Some 240,000 Kenyan teachers are observing what is a disciplined and well-coordinated protest.

President Moi is talking tough

Classrooms across the country remain empty, with important exams coming up for hundreds of thousands of pupils.

The teachers want the government to continue raising their salaries in line with the pay deal.

But the Education Ministry says it simply does not have the cash, and points out that it has already doubled some teachers' wages.

With a presidential election due in December, the authorities are anxious to end this strike and the bad publicity it is generating.

Radicalised

But their confrontational tactics seem to be backfiring.

The government has torn up the original pay deal, withheld teachers' salaries, blocked their monthly contributions to their union and threatened to throw them out of their subsidised housing.

In response, other unions are now contemplating whether to join the teachers in their industrial action.

The government's brinkmanship may yet pay off; with many teachers earning about $40 a month, there is no appetite for a long struggle.

At the same time, Kenyans are becoming increasingly radicalised.

President Moi is due to retire at the end of this year.

His imminent departure has emboldened many sections of society.

Critics argue that authorities cannot pay teachers' wages because of years of corruption and mismanagement.

International donors are refusing to bail the government out with new loans, for much the same reasons.

In that sense, then, the teachers' strike can be seen in the context of a wider and increasingly united opposition movement, which is now threatening the government and Kenya's ruling party.