Talks to avert a nationwide work boycott by university dons and non-teaching staff have collapsed, setting the stage for a strike that begins at midnight.
The strike was called by the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the Kenya Universities Staff Union (Kusu). It comes barely a week after students called off their strike after intervention by the government. Students are unhappy with the new higher education funding model.
Uasu and Kusu issued the notice on September 11.
Two days later, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba invited the unions for a meeting on September 16.
“We couldn’t do whatever the CS and his team requested. It’s not feasible to continue earning the same in an environment where everything has gone up and our purchasing power eroded,” Kusu Secretary-General Charles Mukhwaya said.
His Uasu colleague Constantine Wasonga said lecturers are prepared for a drawn out boycott.
“We don’t eat promises or promissory notes. We don’t care if it takes years. If they come with promises, we’ll reject them. We want something tangible,” he said.
Dr Wasonga added that Labour CS Alfred Mutua called him after the meeting with Mr Ogamba.
“I told him we’ll meet after we launch the strike but we’ll give him an audience,” he said.
The national launch of the strike by Kusu and Uasu officials will be at the Technical University of Kenya at 10am today.
Kenya has 35 public universities and three university constituent colleges. The unions said they would hold a “mega-demonstration” in Nairobi on Monday.
The meeting at Jogoo House was attended by Higher Education Principal Secretary Beatrice Inyangala, national officials of the two unions, Public Universities Vice-Chancellors Committee chairman Daniel Mugendi and Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum chairman Peter Barasa.
“The government side wanted us to call off the strike to allow them to address our issues but we cannot do that because they’ve had all the time. We can only do so if they agree to sign a collective bargaining agreement (CBA) by midnight,” a source who attended the meeting but is not authorised to talk to the press said.
At the centre of the dispute is the proposed 2021/25 CBA.
The lecturers have waited for three years to negotiate the deal as there has been no progress since they tabled their proposal on September 4, 2020.
“There was no counter-proposal until 2023. Even that was a nil-offer. They’ve now said no more waiting. We told the Cabinet Secretary that if they cannot give our members a salary increment, then they should cushion them with a bare minimum,” Dr Mukhwaya said.
During the meeting with Mr Ogamba, the union officials demanded that their members be considered for the seven to 10 percent increment on basic salaries that other government workers were given last year, as the bare minimum.
According to the unions, workers in lower job grades would get a higher percentage while those in the highest grades get the least.
Mr Ogamba offered “to consult other relevant government departments”.
He suggested a 3.5 percent increment across the cadres.
“History shows no CBA has been fulfilled without a strike. We’ll have to go on three strikes; to negotiate the CBA, to register it in court and another one to implement it. We’re ready for the three,” Uasu Organising Secretary Onesmus Mutio said.
In the 2020 proposal, Uasu demanded a rise in the monthly basic pay to Sh99,650 for the lowest-paid lecturer (graduate assistant or tutorial fellow) and Sh338,146 for the highest-paid professor.
The CBA were to start in 2021 had the parties reached an agreement.
The basic salary for the lowest lecturer is Sh57,729 while the highest earns Sh209,694, exclusive of allowances.
