William Onyango
Thousands of Kenyan teachers who recently embarked on a week-long strike have taken to the streets praising President Nelson Mandela’s government for refusing to sell their leaders hi-tech riot police gear.
In the rural Siaya district 500km west of Nairobi, teachers earlier this month marched with placards reading: “Teachers salute Mandela for refusing to sell Kenya police equipment”.
A Kenyan weekly newspaper, the East African, reported that the government was spending 283-million Kenya shillings (R20-million) on four riot-control armoured cars from France and fitted for action in Israel.
The paper said the Kenyan and other East African governments had made inquiries at a leading South African producer of anti-riot vehicles, but no firm orders had been placed.
The Daily Nation in Nairobi reported that South Africa had rejected a bid by the Kenyan government to buy high-tech riot police gear worth R8-million ahead of the elections.
The paper added that the government wanted to buy teargas grenades, rubber bullets, shields, batons and shotguns from a South African company, Reutech.
Sources close to South Africa’s National Conventional Arms Control Committee, which approves and rejects foreign sales, said the sale had been denied because of human rights violations in Kenya.
This drew ardent praise from the teachers. “We salute Mandela,” one said. “He is an African statesman and we salute him for working for a new Africa – one free of dictators and senseless wars.”
The more than 240 000 teachers who are on strike demanding a salary increase of between 150 to 200%, which was recommended by the Teachers’ Service Commission but later refused by the government, saw the bid to acquire the equipment as a move to intimidate them.
The Kenya National Union for Teachers defied President Daniel arap Moi’s appeal that it find an immediate solution to the crisis that had affected close to six million students at primary and secondary schools. “I would like to see the matter resolved soonest,” Moi said.
The Ministry of Education offered the teachers an increase of between 10% and 28%, which the union rejected, describing it as “an abuse of teachers who are doing a very difficult job”.
Amid the crisis, Kenyans, who are frequently troubled by violent crime, expressed surprise at a recent spate of guerrilla-like attacks in Mombasa. Opposition activists contrasted the government’s failure to end the upsurge quickly with its forceful and efficient action against anti-government political rallies.
It was shortly after these attacks that reports of of order for anti-riot vehicles surfaced. The vehicles, which can be equipped with foam systems, bullet-proof tyres, water jet systems and a dye tank to mark protesters, had been earmarked for Nairobi, Mombasa and Kisumu.