The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has disagreed with Moi University management during talks to end an ongoing strike by lecturers that has entered its second week.
Union officials at the university, led by branch secretary Wegesa Busolo, said they met with the management team led by Vice Chancellor Professor Kiplagat Kotut but failed to agree on the offer made by the institution.
Busolo said the university was offering far less than what they are demanding on both financial and non-financial issues.
“The management summoned us for what they said was consultation, but at the meeting in Nairobi, we could not agree on what they were offering for us to call off the strike,” Busolo said.
He said cumulatively, UASU was demanding arrears amounting to over Sh9 billion, out of which Sh5 billion was for the pension scheme, while the rest was for other benefits.
“The university has failed to remit our pension money for many years, and now many of our staff are retiring without any benefits,” Busolo said during a press briefing in Eldoret on Monday.
The lecturers went on strike demanding that the university pay its members' delayed June and July 2025 salaries at the negotiated 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) rates.
UASU is also demanding the implementation of the Return-to-Work Formula signed between the union and the Moi University Council on November 30, 2024.
Busolo said the Return-to-Work Formula had 25 clauses, all of which he alleges had been ignored by the university management.
“They have ignored all that we agreed, and we have decided that we will not engage in futile negotiations as we suffer,” Busolo said.
He was accompanied by branch organising secretary Nyabuta Ojuki.
Busolo said that despite a new management and council being appointed at the university, things had not gotten better.
“Since they came, what they did first was to declare some 120 lecturers as redundant,” Busolo said.
The college has over 1,000 lecturers who are members of UASU.
“At Moi University, employees just work and prepare to die without any benefits, including pension, which has not been remitted by the university for over five years,” Busolo said.
He added that lecturers are lacking medical cover, promotions, and other benefits.
Linda Khaemba, UASU Vice Chairperson at Moi University, said despite winning a case on a redundancy plan, the institution had failed to restore financial dignity for its workers.
“We wonder what image we are giving to our young people who see their lecturers suffering without any dignity. It’s becoming difficult to go to class and tell our students to work hard and even promise them a bright future, yet they can see how we are suffering,” Khaemba said.
She regretted that the management had yet to implement every signed contract with its workers and only called on the union when things turned bad.
She claimed CBAs and return-to-work deals signed at the university were always ignored by the management.
The UASU officials have vowed not to return to work until all their demands are met. UASU had issued a seven-day strike notice for lecturers at Moi University 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 a notice.
Kotut had invited UASU for talks to resolve issues raised in the strike notice issued by the union.
Kotut said they would still engage the lecturers with a view to agreeing on how to end the strike, which has paralysed operations at the college.
The UASU officials said they would only attend meetings aimed at the full implementation of their demands.
