Resolve lecturers' strike to end suffering among students and parents

Members of UASU, KUSU and KUDHEIHA in a solidarity song at Egerton University, when the three unions began a nationwide strike. [Kipsang Joseph, Standard]

The lecturers’ strike has entered its seventh day today. While negotiations continue, it is hard to predict exactly when the strike will end.

The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) called the current strike following the government’s failure to table counter-proposals for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

But rather than tackle this issue head-on, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba, during the commemoration of Teachers' Day last Monday, sought to convince the lecturers to return to classrooms based on what the government had done for them: that it had already paid salary arrears for the 2017-2021 and 2021- 2025 CBAs and also Sh7.2 billion towards the 2021-2025 CBA. That, however, was not the major bone of contention that triggered the ongoing strike.

Beyond the 2025–2029 CBA, the current standoff stems from fundamental disagreements over university funding architecture and fiscal responsibility. At the centre of the dispute is the government’s transition toward a loan-based funding model and market-financed operational structures, paired with a lack of written funding commitments from the National Treasury to support university CBAs through the National Exchequer.

There is no doubt that UASU and the government will eventually agree, as they always do. However, it is concerning that a lot of time is usually wasted before the two sides come to an agreement. Last year, a similar strike disrupted public university academic calendars for 49 days. Some strikes have in the past gone on for months.

Fortunately for them, the two sides in this dispute do not feel much pain during such standoffs. It is the students and their parents and guardians who suffer the most. Such strikes impose extra costs on students and their families, cause significant delays in programme completion and defer graduations, besides causing families mental anguish.

Needless to say, a demoralised faculty directly impacts the calibre of higher education. When top-tier educators and researchers feel undervalued by the State’s financial policies, brain drain becomes an inevitable reality, with talented scholars migrating to private institutions or seeking better and more promising opportunities abroad.

It is for these reasons, and many others, that the government and lecturers should take the current and future negotiations more seriously. The truth is, it was not impossible for the two sides to strike an agreement before the onset of the strike last week. However, their grandstanding and reluctance to negotiate could not allow that to happen. This does not only happen in the education sector. We have seen the same dragging of feet in the health sector, where the repercussions are even more dire.

It is important for the government and unionists to always approach negotiations with sobriety and avoid making unnecessary demands that delay an agreement. They must do so now to end the lecturers’ strike and ease the pain on students and their parents.