Kumi Secondary School Teachers Finally Lay Down Tools

By Emmanuel Okwii
KUMI – Secondary School teachers in Kumi are currently on day two of a sit down strike over non payment of April and July salaries. The strike that officially began on Monday is an attempt by teachers to arm-twist district leaders and the government to respond to their cry before resumption of duty. When Daily Monitor visited Mukongoro, Ngero, Kanyumu and Ongino secondary schools, teachers simply sat under trees and staff rooms as they watched over their students who loitered all over the school compounds.
According to the teachers, the CAO and the Principal Personnel Officer should exp0lain why April salary had not been paid and ensure that their July salary is paid before they take up their tools of trade.  They also claim that there were rumours to the effect that the April salary had been wired into someone’s personal account, a matter daily monitor cpuld not independently verify.
The teachers say that the district’s local government leadership seems not to be responsive and concerned about their plight.
“We alerted the principal personnel officer in April about the non payment but he didn’t respond although he promised to communicate to us after consulting the ministry of public service,” Mr Ogwang Michael said adding that they waited for the communication in vain.
Mr Gideon Orena, a teacher at Mukongoro senior secondary school said that the situation needed industrial action.
“I have told my colleagues that all we can do is to sit down. We may give Mock exams on grounds of sympathy,” Orena said.
The teachers say that although most districts in Teso had been affected between April and June, salary arrears of the affected districts were cleared together with salary for July, with an exception of Kumi.  
“Someone must cough out this money. We can’t just surrender our earnings after toiling for these several months,” Nicholas Atwaeta, one of the teachers in the district said. He also said that there was nothing special or peculiar about Kumi and if they continue ignoring their cries, they will not set and administer end of term two examinations.
The teachers also say that their Principal personnel Officer is rude and doesn’t always want to communicate to them issues pertaining non payment of salary.
“When you go to his office, he doesn’t want to explain to explain things. He told us that April pay slips were ready but how can pay slips be printed without salary payment,” Okwii Emmanuel, a concerned teacher said. 
Primary school teachers in Kumi and Secondary school teachers in Ngora last week received two salaries in a space of for days, a matter that provoked the Kumi teachers to strike.
Blame game
When a delegation of head teachers from Kumi sought advice over the matter from the personnel’s office on Monday, he told them that the anomaly arose out of a deficit in the district’s wage bill.
“Our district’s wage bill has been less by Shs192Million and this is where the shortfall comes in. I have communicated to the headquarters and I am awaiting their response,” Mr Okiria Julius reportedly told the delegation of headteachers that visited his office. He however added that although the district had done its part, much of the responsibility lay with the public service.
“We are mostly responsible for the recruitment of primary school teachers and ensuring that they are paid. We only help secondary school teachers to access the payroll and we have less control over their timely payment,” Okiria went on.
The Kumi district’s CAO, Mr Joseph Balisanyuka said that there was still no cause for alarm.
“It is still too early to raise an alarm. Your salaries will be paid and I don’t think government can deny you what you have worked for,” Balisanyuka told the teachers’ representatives that visited his office.
Mr Richard Okiria, The Chairperson of Eastern region headteachers’ association as well as the headteacher of Ngora high school has said that the teachers deserve an explanation.
“It is criminal to hold someone’s salary even after he has worked for it. Whoever is concerned about this should give an explanation about this matter such that the teachers’ hope is restored,” Mr Okiria said. He adds that there has been deletion of ghost teachers from the payroll by the public service and this had affected many teachers. “A whole district can’t be full of only ghost teachers. Much as I love peaceful resolution of conflicts, teachers should go back to class after being given an assurance of their april and July salaries,” Okiria went on.
 
However, Ms Alice Muwanguzi, the RDC Kumi said that the matter had been reported at his office and appealed to teachers to be patient.
“I have been telling them to be patient because the president has directed that their salaries be paid although I can’t specifically tell when,” Ms Alice Muwanguzi said.

Shunned By Employers Because He Is Lame

By Emmanuel Okwii

Although many graduates dream of sitting in a comfy office and driving a posh car soon after graduating, this has not been the case for Engwalas David. His life has been reduced to that of a pauper because he is not employed, courtesy of his disability. The man’s legs are twined, one on the other and he wears clipped shoes. His movement his aided by a pair of crutches that he says have enabled him move from a life of seclusion to public life.

Born in Ojalasi Village in Kumi district 35 years ago, his parents couldn’t find a better name for him other than Engwalas, an Ateso synonym for ‘lame man’ Little did he know that this reference to him would permanently remain a name with which he would be identified with stigma for the rest of his life.

Born to Mrs. Ityamat Theresa and Mr. Icakol Augustine in 1978, David never had any blemish on his body. However as years went by, he developed complications of fever that would leave him permanently lame.

“It started like fever and he was admitted at Kumi hospital. This was when he was three years old,” Mrs. Ityamat the mother of the disabled youth says. She adds that as years went by, they noticed that the boy’s legs had started becoming crooked and he could not crawl and later on walk.

“It was regarded a curse for one to have a lame child those days. However, I tried my best to take him to school hoping he would at least attain some knowledge and become at least a cobbler,” Augustine Icakol 65, said. He adds that he had to accommodate the derisions from the society and the badmouthing intended to hurt his determination to educate a disabled child.

“They would tell me I was wasting my time but I ignored their scorn because I had hopes my son would make it in the world of academics,” Icakol said.

David Engwalas went to Atuitui Primary School in Ongino Sub County between 1988 to 1994. He later joined Ngora High school for Ordinary Level Secondary education from 1995-1998. Soon after completing O’Level, he was not in position to continue with his studies owing to his poor family background.

“My parents, being peasants, were unable to afford A ‘Level fees at Ngora High School so I had to sit home for some time,” Engwalas recalls.  However, after saving some money from the proceeds of his father’s fishing and agricultural activity; he later joined Mbale Progressive Secondary School between 2002 to 2003.

In 2005, having scored good grades, he was admitted to pursue a course in Secretarial Studies at Makerere University and he graduated in 2008. He then worked with Otipe Micro Investments, a secretarial bureau in Kumi town, soon after graduating with a bachelor in Secretarial studies.

“This business didn’t last. The owner relocated because he had not realized viable profits and this automatically rendered me jobless,” Engwalas says. He adds that from that time to date, he has never secured a paying job despite being qualified.

Stigmatized By Employers

David didn’t keep down his hunt for a job. He kept on dropping job applications to several organizations and offices to no avail.

“I applied for a job with institutions and companies like Kumi District local government, Kumi University, Nile Breweries and NEMA but I was never shortlisted. Most of them told me that I would never manage street life and more so move from storey to storey,” He said. He remembers a particular situation in which he was shortlisted by Kumi District Local Government but was not interviewed because a ‘technical person’ had not been got to interview him.

“There is a very negative attitude by employers that lame men like me can’t get any job done,” David said. He adds that many companies he approached think that he “can’t manage to live and work in town or a busy environment on crutches”

Although he expected support from employers, they instead offer to be sympathetic with him.

“My uncle in Juba once told me that he would have got me a job there had I not been lame,” the youth says. He told him that with the security situation in Juba, he wouldn’t be able to escape incase of any unrest.

“Many employers think that I don’t have the skills needed in the job market which is not true. They should know that just as a disabled person can be educated, he can equally be employed to do any job,” Engwalas said.  David adds that employers should consider people with disability as people who can perform normally because disability is not inability.

Economic Hard-ups

Being the eldest of the five children in his family, he is in most looked upon as a savior because of his success in education.

“At the moment my mother is in hospital. She was bitten by a dog and she is suspected to be having rabies but I can’t afford her treatment,” He says. He adds that several of his brothers and sisters have dropped out of school because of financial reasons, a situation he could have salvaged if he had a job.

“All my parents are still alive but I can’t help them. I need a job to be able to earn something and intervene in my family’s situation,”

Due to frustration, the youth has sought refuge at the dilapidated Kumi Railway Station’s buildings though he vows he won’t stop praying and looking for a job.

“I can’t stay in the same compound and watch my parents suffer. I will stay here until I acquire a job,” He said.

Engwalas calls upon all employers out there to change their mindsets and offer him a job. He especially sends a special request to National Union for Disabled Persons in Uganda [NUDIPU] to come to his rescue and support him.

“Please tell them I have a bachelor of Secretarial Studies from Makerere University,” he said

He can be reached on mobile 0750619445 or 0783367416