University lecturers warn of fresh strike over unpaid CBA arrears

The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) and the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) have accused the government of failing to honour successive Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBA), warning that universities could face fresh disruption if longstanding labour grievances remain unresolved.

Speaking at the UASU headquarters in Nairobi on Tuesday, the union’s Secretary General Dr. Constantine Wasonga and his KUSU counterpart Dr. Charles Mukhwaya demanded the immediate payment of pending 2017–2021 and 2021–2025 CBA arrears in full, rejecting any staggered payment plan.

The unions argued that delayed payments have left university staff financially strained, while no interest has been paid on the arrears despite years of delay.

“I want to tell our parent ministry to expedite the process of paying all the pending arrears, we're still talking about 2021-2025 CBA,” said Dr. Mukhwaya.

The unions also decried stalled promotions, delayed gratuity payments and what they described as unilateral changes to the salaries of lecturers through government human resource instruments without consultation.

On university funding, the officials said public universities are struggling to operate because of delayed exchequer releases, accusing the government of experimenting with higher education policies through the new university funding model.

They maintained that lecturers should continue being paid directly through the exchequer and not from student fees.

”You cannot use universities as a specimen for trial and error, it's not a laboratory thing, you are joking around with the lives of Kenyan students,” said  Dr. Mukhwaya.

Dr. Wasonga dismissed claims that UASU had been consulted on proposals to review the retirement age of university staff, challenging the Public Service Commission (PSC) to provide evidence, including minutes of any meeting where such consultations allegedly took place.

“The Universities Academic Staff Union where I'm the SG has never discussed the matter of retirement age with anyone,” he said.

The union further urged lecturers to boycott part-time teaching arrangements, arguing that universities have increasingly relied on part-time staff instead of recruiting more full-time lecturers.

Dr. Wasonga claimed Kenya has about 9,000 lecturers serving more than one million university students, leaving existing staff overstretched.

“Kenya should have 35,000 plus lecturers, when we are only 10,070 with about 1000 in management,” said the UASU boss.

The officials warned that unless the government honours the previous CBAs and clears the pending allowances, lecturers may not resume teaching when universities reopen in September.

“My statement, which I said I'll call another strike in 2030, I have withdrawn. I'm seeing we're being forced to have one in September,” Dr. Wasonga declared.

The unions also questioned the government's pledge to fully fund university students, arguing that clearing over Ksh.100 billion in pending bills owed to universities should be the immediate priority to stabilise the higher education sector.