The government has heeded the call by the lecturers’ unions to implement the 10% salary increase as part of the Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) 2021-2025. The university staff have therefore called of their strike, which began three weeks ago and has since paralyzed teaching and research across the public universities in the country.
The University Academic Staff Union (UASU) Secretary General, Dr. Constatine Wesonga, applauded the government for committing KES 9.7 billion for the CBA. He directed all striking lecturers to resume teaching from November 29th, 2024—stamping out the second phase of the strike, which began on October 29, 2024.
“We want to thank the government for accepting to unveil KES 9.7 billion for the CBA of 2021-2025. Therefore, the University Academic Staff Union is convinced that the government has heeded to what we wanted, and therefore we officially call off the strike that started on 29th October 2024,” Dr. Wasonga, UASU Secretary General, stated.
“I want to impress upon lecturers that we should prepare to resume classes on Monday. We should also prepare to arrange with the university management and the senate to cover the time lost so that the students can get a quality education,” he remarked.
The Cabinet Secretary for Education, Dr. Julius Ogamba, confirmed the government’s commitment to the CBA. Thanking the unions for accepting to resume teaching, the CS highlighted the need to start early negotiations to end the standoff occasioned by delays.
“The government has committed to ensuring that what figures have been provided for in the CBA is implemented in the next three years. We have also committed to ensure that we start negotiations of future CBAs at the beginning of their cycle, not at the end of their cycle,” Dr. Julius Ogamba, CS for Education, stated.
“Because if we do negotiations at the end of the cycle, it brings difficulties in budgeting for the resources that are required to ensure that that CBA is implemented. So going forward, all our unions—all our unions in the sector—will be negotiating their CBAs at the beginning of their cycle and not at the end,” the CS added.
On September 18, 2024, the university academic staff kicked off the strike after giving a seven-day strike notice, which the owner failed to give. The dons would then go back to classes after the government agreed to settle the CBA by the end of October.
The learners again grinded their tools on October 29th, 2024, bringing the academic activities to a complete halt following a return to work formula signed between the University Academic Staff Union and the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCF), which failed to materialize.
The government rejected the 4%, which the Uniions rejected and vowed to remain on strike as long as it would take. The decision to end the strike is a long-awaited sigh of relief amongst the students, who threatened to join their lecturers by taking to the streets to express their anger after wasting two months of their first semester without progress.
