Kenya University Staff Union (KUSU) and Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) officials accused the university of carrying out an illegal and skewed redundancy exercise without following laid down labour and employment regulations.
UASU secretary general Constantine Wasonga, his KUSU counterpart Charles Mukhwaya, UASU chairperson Grace Nyongesa and other union officials met in Eldoret and rejected any talks unless the letters are withdrawn.
The unions moved to the High Court, which suspended the redundancy letters but the university defied the court order and continued with the sackings.
Wasonga said vice chancellor Kiplagat Kotut had invited them for a "clarification meeting”, which the union said would be an illegal session.
“We will not engage in any dialogue unless the letters are first withdrawn by the university,” he said.
The officials said the university management was acting in complete contravention of the law and punishing innocent employees for problems at the college.
“The employees are not the ones who ruined Moi University and nothing has been done to those responsible. We will not allow the university to use our members as the scapegoat,” Wasonga said.
He said the university must be transparent in its actions and allow an audit of all its establishments to understand the number of staff, those who have retired and those who had died.
“We are aware that some of the workers listed on the redundancy are long retired or died,” Wasonga said.
He claimed the exercise is being done in secrecy so its used by individuals to create positions for their cronies and relatives.
Wasonga and Mukhwaya claimed the university did not have a bloated workforce as claimed and it needed more workers because of an expected increase in number of students.
Mukwaya said it was not realistic for the university to sack academic staff, yet the number of students shows it requires more lecturers.
Wasonga asked Education CS Julius Ogamba to stop what he termed as "ongoing nonsense” at the college because he had pledged the employees will not be affected in the reforms at the institution.
The university issued the redundancy letters last week in a move the VC said was aimed at cutting costs due to financial costs running to more than Sh12 billion.
Kotut has vowed proceed with the reforms in an effort to revive the university.
Among those targeted for redundancy are 150 lecturers.
