The strike at Moi University reflects a deepening crisis in higher education, where unresolved financial obligations and ignored agreements have eroded trust between lecturers and management. Uasu's demand for Sh9 billion, largely tied to pensions and salary arrears, highlights years of mismanagement that have left staff without basic dignity, benefits, or security. The defiance by union leaders underscores mounting frustration with what they see as empty consultations and broken promises. As the strike enters its second week, the impasse threatens to cripple academic operations and signals a broader warning for public universities facing similar governance, funding, and accountability challenges.
UASU is demanding full
implementation of 25 demands, including the payment of Sh9 billion, to
end the ongoing lecturers’ strike at Moi University.
The University's Academic Staff Union and the university management failed to reach an agreement during talks to end the strike, now in its second week.
Union officials, led by
branch secretary Dr Wegesa Busolo, said on Tuesday they met with the
management team led by vice chancellor Prof Kiplagat Kotut but could not
agree on the offer presented by the institution.
Busolo said the university’s offer
was far below what the lecturers were demanding, both on financial and
non-financial matters. “The management summoned us for what they termed as
consultations, but at the meeting in Nairobi we could not agree on their offer
for us to call off the strike,” he said.
The dons are demanding
arrears amounting to more than Sh9 billion. Out of this, Sh5 billion is for the
pension scheme, while the rest covers other benefits. “The university has
failed to remit our pension contributions for many years, and now many of our
staff are retiring without any benefits,” Busolo said during a press briefing
in Eldoret.
The lecturers went on strike to
demand payment of their delayed June and July 2025 salaries at the negotiated
2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement rates. Uasu is also pushing for
the implementation of the return-to-work formula signed between the union and
the Moi University council on November 30, 2024.
Busolo said the formula contains 25 clauses, all of which the university
management has ignored. “They have disregarded everything we agreed on, and we
have decided not to engage in futile negotiations while we continue to suffer,”
he said.
He added that, despite the
appointment of a new management team and council at the institution, the
situation had worsened. “When they came in, the first thing they did was to
declare 120 lecturers redundant.”
Moi University has more than 1,000
lecturers who are members of Uasu. Busolo accused the university of diverting
Sh500 million released last year to address staff welfare issues, alleging that
the money was instead used to offset loans owed to banks. “At Moi University,
employees just work and prepare to die without any benefits, including
pensions, which have not been remitted for over five years.”
Busolo further claimed that the university
was mistreating lecturers, who currently lack medical cover, promotions, and
other benefits due to them.
Uasu vice chairperson at Moi
University, Linda Khaemba, said that, despite winning a court case on the
redundancy plan, the institution had failed to restore the financial dignity of
its workers.
“We wonder what example we are
giving our young people who see their lecturers suffering without dignity. It
is becoming difficult to go to class, tell our students to work hard, and
promise them a bright future when they can see how we are suffering,” she said.
She regretted that the university
management had ignored every signed contract with its staff and only engaged
the union when matters worsened. CBAs and return-to-work
agreements with the university had been reduced to mere paperwork that the
management routinely disregards.
The officials have vowed not to
return to work until all their demands are met. The union had earlier issued a
seven-day strike notice over delayed salaries. “The university should also
honour the clauses on review and promotion of staff and retirement age in the
negotiated 2021–2025 national Collective Bargaining Agreement,” they said in
their notice.
However, Uasu officials maintained
that they would only attend meetings aimed at the full implementation of their
demands.
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