University lecturers’ have tabled fresh salary demands, which if implemented, will see the highest paid don take home Sh580,144 monthly while the lowest paid tutorial fellow will pocket a basic pay of Sh86,594.
The amount excludes house, car and commuter allowances, alongside other benefits to be negotiated under the 2025–29 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) prepared by the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu).
Should the government accept the demands through its representative, the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF), the enhanced pay will take effect from July 1, 2025, and spread until June 30, 2029.
The new development may have already started sending chills down the spines of education stakeholders, particularly students and parents, if past experiences regarding implementation of lecturers’ CBA’s is anything to go by.
Universities are yet to fully recover from prolonged lecturers’ strikes late last year over delayed implementation of the 2021-2025 CBA, which is yet to be fully implemented, even as lecturers brace for a fresh round of negotiations for the new deal.
The nationwide strike started on September 18 and paralysed learning across all 30 public universities as lecturers and other non-teaching staff pushed for implementation of phase II of the 2021–2025 CBA worth Sh9.7 billion.
The CBA was signed on September 4, 2020, but the Uasu and sister union Kenya University Staff Union (Kusu) accused the government of taking them in circles.
The lecturers were demanding a 10 per cent salary increment having turned down a 4.5 per cent pay rise offer after 10 rounds of talks mediated by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC).
The lecturers were particularly frustrated that other unions, including the Kenya Union of Post-Primary Education Teachers (KUPPET) and the Kenya National Union of Teachers (KNUT), as well as civil servants, were given pay increments of up to 8 per cent.
“Other public service employees were given seven to 10 per cent (salary increment). We are also government employees. We want the seven to 10 per cent that other public sector employees were given,” UASU National Secretary General Dr Constantine Wasonga said when issuing a seven-day strike notice on September 11.
What followed next were a series of on-and-off strikes exacerbated by the government's failure to honour return-to-work agreements after every mediation process.
Lecturers at the troubled Moi University were on strike the longest time—three months—before Uasu called off strike on November 30, a week after the union halted the strike in the other universities.
Already, signs of trouble have started showing that the country may be yet again staring at all-out state vs lecturers pay duels that may result in disrupted learning across public universities.
In January, Uasu gave the government a 15-day ultimatum from January 1, 2025, to implement the 2021-2025 CBA.
UASU organising secretary Onesmus Mutio said the return-to-work agreement was that the December salary would include arrears for October and November 2024.
“We saw a circular from the PS directing universities to prepare to pay new salaries from December, but as we went from Christmas, lecturers went for the holidays without the new salaries as had been expected,” Mutio said.
Just this week, the Technical University of Kenya (TUK) suspended February exams due to an ongoing lecturers’ strike.
The three-day exams were to start on Monday, February 13 and end on Wednesday, February 15.
“Please note that the suspension takes effect immediately. Consequently, all diploma and undergraduate students are directed to vacate the university premises by 2.45 pm today, Monday, February 13, 2025,” academic registrar Moses Wamalwa said in a memo and ordered students to vacate halls of residence by 5 pm.
“Further updates will be communicated in due course,” he added.
Lecturers at the TUK went on strike on January 14, protesting delayed salaries.
They were joined by non-teaching staff allied to the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Education Institutions, and Hospital Workers (KUDHEIHA).
The crisis in universities may be worsened if the government loses an appeal case it has lodged seeking the lifting of an injunction against the new funding model.
On Monday, university students staged protests at the Higher Education Loans Board (Helb) offices in Nairobi demanding the release of upkeep funds for first-year and second-year students under the 2024/2025 academic year.
A day later, the government announced that it had disbursed Sh3.37 billion for the students.
"We decided to pay the students under the old funding model. So, their upkeep has gone, and by this morning, I think about Sh3.7 billion was put to their accounts. By the end of the day, they would have received their money. It is a stop-gap measure to ease the suffering of the students, but the universities have not been paid," Helb lending manager Joseph Ndegwa said after a group of students stormed the headquarters demanding the money to be released.
