- Council chairman Humphrey Njoroge said they had requested the meeting with UASU to explain and consult over issues including salary delays
- However, UASU officials led by Nyabuta Oyuki said they would remain on a go slow until the university resolves all issues around their salaries.
Image: MATHEWS NDANYI
Moi University Council and management on Friday met with the lecturers' union in a bid to resolve a salary crisis.
The salary crisis has led to a go-slow by more than 3,000 employees.
Council chairman Humphrey Njoroge said they had requested the meeting with the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) to explain and consult over issues including salary delays and failure to implement the 2017-2022 CBA.
“We called the meeting to consult with the union and we have agreed on the way forward on resolving the issues they have,” Njoroge said.
He told the Star on the phone that they would implement all that was agreed on by the UASU Moi University chapter officials.
However, UASU officials led by Nyabuta Oyuki said they would remain on a go slow until the university resolves all issues around their salaries.
“We are all out of work and unless we get our salaries paid in full diagonally as per the 2017 CBA we will not be back,” Oyuki said.
He confirmed that they met with the university council and management led by VC Professor Isaac Kosgey but there was no commitment by the management as to when the disputed issues would be implemented.
The more than 3,000 employees of the university have staged a go-slow and boycotted work since Tuesday to protest frequent salary delays and other work-related frustrations.
They are threatening to stage a full-blown strike if the university management led by Kosgey does not resolve their demands.
The workers led by UASU officials and the Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) have petitioned President William Ruto to intervene and have their plight resolved.
Mary Chepkwemoi who is KUSU secretary said their members had boycotted duty at the main campus and at the College of Health Sciences.
“We have not been paid July salaries and many of us on contracts have not been paid for eight months now,” Chepkwemoi said.
She said the university had failed to remit all salary deductions to pay loans and other financial obligations with bank institutions for the last seven years.
She said they had hoped that Ruto would save the university but the state of the institution was getting worse.
The officials said the workers were in heavy debt and some of them had died because of financial frustrations caused by the university.
Okero said one of the financial institutions had sued workers whose assets were now being auctioned because the university had failed to remit deductions for payment of loans.
The workers are demanding that VC Kosgey and the university council resign claiming they had failed in managing the institution.
“We are asking Ruto to ensure that we have new management at Moi University failure to which the university will collapse,” Chepkwemoi said.
The workers on Tuesday carried out protests at the main campus of the medical school in Eldoret to protest against the salary delays.
But Njoroge insisted that they had no serious issues with employees most of whom he claimed were on duty.
He admitted that the university like others in the country was still facing financial challenges leading to salary delays and other challenges.