Top managers at Moi University were yesterday locked in lengthy negotiations with workers’ unions in a bid to end a two-month strike and reopen the institution on Friday.
Vice chancellor Isaac Kosgey said they were making good progress in efforts to sign a return-to-work formula with the Universities Academic Staff Union and Kenya Universities Staff Union.
“We will issue a formal statement once we are through with the negotiations,” Kosgey said.
He spoke at the School of Health Sciences, where the negotiations were taking place.
The university, which has been closed indefinitely since October 3, will reopen should a way be found to end the strike by more than 3,000workers over delayed salaries and issues surrounding the Collective Bargaining Agreement.
The institution has released a comprehensive schedule of meetings and negotiations aimed at ensuring a smooth transition to normalcy.
According to the notice from Kosgey, consultative meetings with Uasu and Kusu started on Saturday and will continue through today.
The meetings will culminate in the official reopening of the university tomorrow.
The meetings involve high-level discussions between university management, union officials and the university’s governing agencies.
The negotiation meetings with the unions continued yesterday with a final meeting and signing of the return-to-work formula scheduled for today.
The reopening is scheduled for tomorrow, followed by the return of students on Friday.
The prolonged industrial action and resulting unrest among students led to the suspension of all academic activities, with students being instructed to vacate university premises.
The closure, which came after rising tensions due to the unpaid salaries and the institution’s struggle to honour the CBA, escalated into violent protests last month.
Students marched in the streets, a move that left some hospitalised after a clash with riot police.
Union leaders and students have pleaded for intervention from President William Ruto to rescue the university from what they described as a crisis threatening its very survival.
In recent weeks, Uasu and Kusu leaders have called off the strike, but many of the university’s workers remain resolute, insisting on their demands being met before they return to work.
Uasu officials, led by branch secretary Ojuki Nyabuta and Mary Chepkwemoi from Kusu, said they were in negotiations but would only accept to return to work once their salary-related dues amounting to more than is Sh10 billion are settled.
“We are negotiating in good faith, but we have suffered for too long that we cannot accept anything less than all that they owe us,” Nyabuta said.
Their determination was evident when hundreds of workers marched to the Uasin Gishu county assembly to present their grievances, pledging to continue the strike until a sustainable solution was found.
