Raila woos varsity dons with pledge for better pay after polls

Azimio la Umoja presidential candidate Raila Odinga has moved to foster  good relations with lecturers ahead of the August polls by pledging to address their salary concerns.

The ODM leader met over 100 officials of the University Academic Staff Union (UASU) in Nairobi on Tuesday in an apparent move to foster good relations with lecturers before and after the August 9 polls.

Raila told the dons that his administration will prioritize better remuneration for lecturers should he be voted into office as Kenya’s fifth president.

“One of the factors of motivation is remuneration so that people feel that they are properly rewarded for the work that they are doing,” Raila said.

He spoke during the event held at the Jaramogi Oginga Odinga Foundation in Upper Hill, Nairobi.

Raila spoke extensively on matters touching on the remuneration of university academic staff which has for years led to frequent industrial action by lecturers.

The ODM boss, however, said remuneration isn’t always pegged on agreed percentages between a government and certain sets of civil servants.

He said salary hikes depend on the cost of living and not necessarily on Collective Bargaining Agreements.

“It’s not a question of how much are you going to give us. It’s the cost of living which makes nurses, doctors, teachers and lecturers continue to demand salary increases.

“So we must address the issue of cost of living,” Raila said.

Lecturers have over the past years been at loggerheads with the governments of the day over their salaries and allowances.

The bone of contention has often been non implementation of their CBAs signed between them and the Inter-Public University Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) which represents the government side.

In February 2018, Kenyan lecturers pulled off the longest strike in Kenya’s history when they stayed away from lecture halls for 76 days demanding full implementation of the 2017-21 CBA.

Raila appeared to speak in retrospect of the events that paralyzed learning across all public universities for close to three months.

In an apparent move aimed at discouraging the dons from staging a similar strike under his watch, Raila said he will focus on addressing the cost of living to avert demands for pay hikes.

“We must address the cost of living so that it matches the income of the people. This is what we are going to deal with,” Raila said.

“It’s not the question of what was negotiated or what percentage because that will continue to go up as the cost of living continue to increase.”

Raila said arresting the cost of living will be double score since it will also attract investors.

“China has become the factory of the world because it invested in manpower development. Trained highly skilled manpower which was cheap because the cost of living was also very cheap,” Raila explained.

He said China’s low cost of living resulted in cheap labour resulting in leading global corporations establishing their headquarters in the Asian nation.

“Today you find Mercedes based in China, Volvo is manufactured in China, Peugeot, General Motors, Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, LG, Samsung...they are all manufactured in China.” 

Raila’s presidential ambition got a boost at the event after the dons endorsed him to succeed President Uhuru Kenyatta after the August polls.

The over 100 dons affiliated to UASU vowed to drum up support for Raila in all the universities in the country under 'Dons for Baba' slogan.

The Union brings together lecturers and university staff from all the 31 public universities in the country.