Sacked workers at Kisii University on Wednesday fought back, saying they read mischief after the management gave them termination letters.
Union officials at a press conference outside the main campus termed the dismissals s arbitrary and lacking in merit.
They asked the institution's vice chancellor John Akama to rescind the move and allow them to resume work.
Union officials Moses Nyandusi and Zachary Mose said there was no consultation before the university gave them dismissal letters.
"We want him to rethink this move as it was done in haste. No staffer ever received prior preparation for this incident," Mose said.
The unionists said they were not aware of the criteria used to select the workers to be sent packing and those to remain.
"As affected members, we feel someone is using us as sacrificial lambs to cover his incompetence. We want to know the criteria used," Mose said.
All the affected staffers are to check out of the institution in a month's time, according to letters addressed to them.
At least 204 non-teaching staff were chopped from the university payroll because of what the institution's vice chancellor said was declining revenues and effects of Covid-19.
Union officials said they will continue to fight to the bitter end and ensure all those sent packing are ordered back to their work stations.
"As a union, we will definitely continue to fight until this exercise is put on hold, until a time broad consultations are done," Nyandusi said.
He said they want a committee formed to draft an agreeable formula for sacking workers at the university.
"Until such a time when this committee is set up, we consider the sackings null and void," he told journalists.
Akama, however, said they had reached a financial dead end, making the reorganisation inevitable.
"Universities all over the country are going through tough financial times and Kisii is no exception. Revenue has been declining over the years and the advent of Covid-19 made the matter worse," Akama said.
The university has seen much of the revenue accrued from self-sponsored students nosedive following declining registration.
This, Akama said, was occasioned by the fact that most candidates who finish Form Four get into government-sponsored courses.
Currently, Kisii has 13,500 regular students and 500 self-sponsored ones.
Akama said the low number of private students means low external revenue for the institution.
"We have already sought government advice on this matter, which gave us the go ahead," the vice chancellor said.
Akama said the institution's accounts were in a bad shape and cannot sustain a huge wage bill.
"This is how far we had reached before we engaged the board. Something had to be immediately done and that is to drastically undertake a reorganisation," he said.
He said the per cent of university non-teaching exceeding lecturers. "This was definitely not good for us and thus the need for this reorganisation. The university is not an employment bureau and our core mandate is teaching."
The university plans to roll out various investments to raise income for its activities.
On Monday, some of staffers affected said they were caught off guard by the sackings .
"We were just called and given letters; no explanation given regarding why we were being sent home," said an affected staffer, who received the discharge letter on Friday.
Edited by Henry Makori
