Sossion: Stickler for time who gave his all as teacher

Wilson Sossion, 46, takes a cue from the photographer and sits on the chair at the corner of his terrace outside his house in Embakasi.

He cracks a smile and leads his last born son to sit on his lap. The boy resembles him, though he is much more inquisitive than his father. He has learnt to speak his mind quiet early, yet he is just 10.

It’s a Tuesday, the second day of the national teachers’ strike and he too, is not in school like other children in public schools. The strike organised by his father and other union officials has affected him and his friend, whom we met at the gate on their way to the playground.

Our visit seemed to have cut short their journey. He came back inquiring about our presence. “Who are these people? Are they from TV (sic)?” The many visits by journalists, keen to interview his father who is secretary-general of the largest workers union in the country, the Kenya National Union of Teachers, have only whetted his curiosity.

Minutes before our arrival, he was watching his father field questions from another reporter. The house may not have been an ideal place for interviews, but it served to provide an opportunity for the young mind to acquaint with his father’s occupation.

Looking at the boy, it is clear that Mr Sossion has done a good job raising his three children single-handed. His wife passed on four years ago and he says his priority is to raise his children. Will he remarry? “Only God knows,” he says.

Proper time management is what offers him a chance to spend time with his family and supervise homework. “I’m very strict with time. If I have appointments, I honour them. If it’s time to be home, I’m always home.”

Being a teacher, one would expect him to tutor his kids, but he doesn’t. Instead he offers a chance to other teachers.

He gives up the privacy of his home to take interviews from journalists. He says he is not scared of the government and court officials hunting him down to serve him with orders related to the strike that has paralysed the start of the first term.

He was indoors on Tuesday, monitoring the strike. He says he believes in the truth and cannot stand liars.

“The strike will benefit everyone. We are not about to call it off until these things are understood. We will do it every year if need be.”

Knut’s goal is to see more investment in education, says Sossion, who has two bachelor’s degrees in Education and Science and is pursuing a doctorate in education management and policy at Kenya Methodist University.

“Vision 2030 envisions Kenya being the hub of human resource,” he says. Then, comes his big question on the economic blueprint: “How can this happen if we are not funding education?”

The government currently spends Sh200 billion on education annually. However, Mr Sossion says, this is not enough. Sh300 billion more, he says, will help every child to gain education and give all youth the opportunity to get vocational skills.

This way, he says, Kenya can export labour, giving a chance to everyone to actively contribute to the economy.

“Let’s all look at education from the macro-economic standing and not the face value of it,” said Mr Sossion, who also has a Masters in education management from Moi University and a diploma in agriculture and extension services from Egerton University.

Mr Sossion doesn’t equate himself to his fiery predecessors although he admires them for their contributions to the union. The likes of Stephen Kioni for founding the union, pushing for creation of the Teachers Service Commission and maternity leave for members as well as leading the first teachers’ strike in 1962. The late Ambrose Adongo for facing the government of the day head-on, forming cooperatives and advocating for teachers welfare.

However, Francis Ng’ang’a, a former secretary-general, is his mentor and he continues to talk to him daily.

“Our fore leaders are an archive of wisdom and we must do more to liberate the teachers. The success of Knut is the success for teachers in Africa,” he says.

Mr Sossion started teaching in 1993 at his alma mater, Tenuek High School, in Bomet.

Although his dream was to be a teacher, he never aspired to join the union. In fact, it’s the teachers in Bomet who conceived the idea and pushed him to vie for position of executive secretary at the branch level. As a teacher, Mr Sossion says he was absorbed in his work, staying in school throughout.

“I would only leave school once a month to take my salary,” he said. He spent much of his evenings in the staff room and in the mornings with students, guiding them. In his free time, he would coach drama and music students or accompany them for education trips.

These qualities convinced his colleagues he was a candidate for union leadership. His subjects had always topped at the district. In fact, 40 out of 70 of his last chemistry and agriculture class in the year 2000 scored A’s.

Mr Sossion used a donated bicycle for campaigns. Later the teachers gave him a motorbike to traverse the whole of Bomet but he narrowly lost the elections.

Teachers encouraged him to vie again in 2001 and assured him of votes. “True to it, the teachers gave me the votes and I won the election with a landslide,” he said.

Two months later, he was elected to the national executive council in a move that changed his destiny. At the council, he was exposed to policy and decision-making.

In 2007, on retirement of Joseph Chirchir, the second vice national chairman of Knut, he contested the post and won. Later, he went for the first vice chairman position and was elected unopposed. He rose through the ranks to the national chair and in 2013, members requested him to switch and serve as the secretary general.

He recently told off the Education secretary when he abolished ranking in examination, saying the policy will encourage laziness. “We don’t need tiger professors who are busy experimenting.”

But even as he pushes for additional investment in education, he acknowledges that Knut is not a society of angels, referring to the 13 per cent teacher absenteeism in schools.

And despite his hectic schedule, he still offers his drama expertise to schools, sometimes as an adjudicator.

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