Crisis looms in varsities as dons set to resume strike
Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) Secretary General Dr Constantine Wasonga addressing the media at UASU Head office in Nairobi on October 28, 2024 where they issued a strike notice.
Lecturers in all public universities will resume their nationwide strike at midnight tonight following a disagreement between the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the government on execution of the return-to-work formula they signed on September 26.
The strike is likely to disrupt learning activities as well as various examinations in universities.
Uasu Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga instructed union members not to teach, mark or invigilate university examinations until the government honours the pay increment deal they signed.
“Just work today up to midnight, after one minute, down your tools. Let there be no physical teaching, no online teaching, no marking and no invigilation until money hits your accounts,” he said after chairing a national executive council meeting at the union headquarters in Nairobi.
The deal in question was signed between Uasu and the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF).
In the deal, lecturers in lower grades were to get a 10 per cent pay increment while those in higher grades were to get a seven percent increase in their pay and an automatic annual increment of 4 percent on their basic salary. This was to be backdated for 2023-2024 and 2024-2025, and to be implemented in the October salaries.
“IPUCCF doesn’t want to factor in automatic annual increment at four per cent,” Dr Wasonga said.
The return-to-work formula was brokered by Labour Cabinet Secretary Alfred Mutua.
The strike had involved other university workers represented by the Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu) and the Kenya Union of Domestic Hotels Educational Institutions Hospitals and Allied Workers (Kudheiha).
However, during the press conference yesterday, the two unions were conspicuously absent.
“I don’t speak for other unions. If they have accepted, good for them. I only represent members of Uasu,” said Dr Wasonga when asked about participation of the two unions in the strike.
After signing the agreement to resume work, the three unions and IPUCCF selected two representatives each to work on calculations of how the salaries of universities workers would be improved.
The members retreated to Machakos University for three days and came up with the figures. The total cost of the deal came to Sh9.8 billion.
However, upon return to Nairobi, the inter-ministerial committee comprising the Ministry of Education, National Treasury and Ministry of Labour offered Sh4.3 billion to the workers.
Dr Wasonga said that a team from the government side has done its own simulations based on the Sh4.3 billion on offer, which they have rejected.
“We agreed to a phased implementation. They can start with the Sh4.3 billion as they reorganise themselves but we must get what we agreed upon,” he said.
The parties have agreed that the retirement age for graduate assistants, tutorial fellows and assistant lecturers be harmonised at 70 years while senior lecturers, associate professors and professors will retire at 74 years.
The parties also agreed on a framework for car loans and mortgage schemes for universities staff while in the next one month, they will work on the pending issues, which include harmonisation of allowances, a medical cover and promotions.
