Varsities closure looms as lecturers set to strike over pay, funding model

UASU SG Constantine Wasonga with Education CS Ogamba during the signing of a return-to-work deal in Nairobi on November 5, 2025. [Collins Oduor, Standard]

Teaching and learning in public universities face disruption from Friday as lecturers prepare to down their tools over a delayed new pay deal and opposition to the proposed loan-based university funding model.

The Standard has established that the Government has yet to open negotiations with the lecturers even as their seven-day strike notice expires today (Thursday), leaving little time to avert the planned industrial action.

The strike could paralyse teaching and learning across the institutions, alongside other university operations, if no agreement is reached before Friday.

The impasse means lecturers are set to begin a nationwide strike at midnight on Friday, October 2, unless there is a last-minute intervention.

The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) on September 24 issued a seven-day nationwide strike notice, with the industrial action set to begin at midnight on Friday, October 2, 2026.

The planned strike stems from a standoff between lecturers and the Government over the implementation of a new pay deal.

The union claims university councils, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury have failed to honour an agreement reached nearly a year ago.

UASU says the Government has also failed to table a financial counter-proposal for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), leaving lecturers without a new remuneration agreement while other public education sector employees have already concluded their CBAs.

The union says the latest development came on September 21 when the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) informed university-sector unions that neither the Ministry of Education nor the National Treasury had given a written commitment that funding for public universities’ CBAs would be provided through the National Exchequer.

According to UASU, SRC consequently said it could not issue the constitutional advice required to facilitate financial counter-proposals to the unions.

The disclosure has now thrown into question the negotiations that have been ongoing since last year.

UASU says negotiations held at Machakos University had effectively become futile because the Government allegedly knew that the National Treasury had not issued the conventional funding commitment required for the CBA.

At the same time, UASU is opposed to the Government’s proposed new loan-based university funding model because of concerns that it will affect the source of lecturers pay.

The union is opposed to the suggestion that funding for public universities could be drawn from student fees and market-based financing rather than being guaranteed through the National Exchequer as it has been over the years.

UASU Secretary General Constantine Wasonga said the proposal creates uncertainty over the source of lecturers’ salaries and could effectively shift responsibility for financing public university staff from the Government to universities and, indirectly, students.

The union also argues that such a shift could undermine the status of academic staff as public officers, whose remuneration should be provided through the national budget.

“This is an attempt to redesignate academic staff as employees outside the category of public officers,” Wasonga said.

The Union now demands that the Government guarantees the financing of the 2025–2029 CBA through the National Exchequer.

Under the proposal, UASU seeks an average six per cent annual salary increment during the four-year agreement running from July 2025 to June 2029.

Under the proposed structure, the highest salary notch for professors would rise from the current Sh345, 816 to more than Sh580,144 a month by 2028/29, while senior lecturers could earn Sh399,644 from the current Sh238,221.

The union is also seeking higher housing allowances, with professors proposed to receive Sh116,028 a month from the current ShSh73,715, associate professors Sh104,426 from the current Sh66,344, senior lecturers Sh92,822 (from Sh58,972) and lecturers Sh87,020 (from Sh55,286).

The union wants commuter allowances standardised at Sh60,000 a month for all academic grades except part-timers, which it proposes at Sh20,000.

Similarly, UASU is seeking a standardised monthly risk allowance of Sh30,000 for lecturers exposed to occupational hazards and higher allowances for staff undertaking extra duties.

Currently, risk allowance rates vary by designation and range between Sh5,000 and Sh15,000 for staff working in laboratories and workshops.

The proposal seeks annual research grants of up to Sh5 million for professors and associate professors, and Sh4 million for senior lecturers and lecturers.

The union also wants academic staff who attract external research grants to receive a 20 per cent honorarium of the value of the grants.

The union wants higher rates for part-time teaching, proposing Sh3,000 an hour for postgraduate certificate teaching from the current Sh2,500.

For part-time lecturers teaching postgraduate and master's courses, UASU is proposing an hourly rate of Sh4 680, from the current Sh3,000.

The strike comes less than a year after public universities were hit by a prolonged industrial action that lasted 49 days.

The previous strike began on September 17, 2025, and was called off on November 5 after UASU, the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and the Government signed a Return-to-Work Formula.

The 49-day dispute had a major impact on university operations, with learning disrupted and academic calendars affected.

This led to delayed examinations and graduations, disrupted student attachments and placed additional financial pressure on students and parents.

The agreement that ended that strike included a commitment by the Government to pay Sh7.9 billion in arrears in two instalments. It also provided for the conclusion of the 2025–2029 CBA within 30 days.

However, the delayed completion of the new CBA is at the centre of the renewed dispute.

[e-mail]