Maasai Mara University Strike: UASU, KUSU, KUDHEHIA Demand Government Action

Lecturers and other staff at Maasai Mara University have returned to the streets, accusing the government of failing to honour negotiated agreements and adequately fund public universities.

The workers, under the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Narok Chapter, say they were pushed into the strike by the government’s failure to fulfil its commitments under the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

Speaking at the university, UASU Narok Chapter Secretary Bonface Isalambo said the government must take responsibility for funding public universities instead of shifting the burden to students and lecturers.

“A nation that starves its university is starving its future,” Isalambo said. “It is not logical to ask students to finance the state and lecturers to subsidise the government.”

He criticised the government’s funding model, particularly the principle that “finances follow the student”, saying it was putting too much pressure on students and universities.

Isalambo said university staff were public officers and should be funded through the Exchequer like other public servants.

“We cannot agree to universities being converted into private entities through the back door,” he said.

The union official also accused the government of delaying the negotiation, registration and implementation of the 2025–2029 CBA.

He said more than a year had passed since the agreement was expected to be concluded under the return-to-work formula.

The CBA covers issues including the harmonisation of allowances, basic salaries, car loans and mortgages.

“The CBA was supposed to take care of things such as harmonisation of allowances, basic salary, car loan and mortgage. Are you aware that universities are the only places in government where that has not been implemented?” Isalambo posed.

He said the delay had left university staff frustrated, especially as other public servants had started benefiting from the agreement.

Isalambo called on the government to respect negotiated agreements and public service human resource policies, saying commitments reached at the negotiating table should not be abandoned.

“Negotiated agreements have to be honoured. Going forward, let the students carry the books, not finance the government. Let the lecturer carry the knowledge, not finance the state,” he said.

Galfen Omuse echoed the concerns, saying university workers were demanding the negotiation, signing, registration and full implementation of the 2025–2029 CBA.

“It cannot be possible that every time we want a CBA signed, we have to go to the streets. It is now past one year. The 2025–2026 financial year has already elapsed. Nothing has come forth,” Omuse said.

He urged the government to move quickly to resolve the stalemate, saying workers could not depend on government directives and court orders to meet their basic needs.

“We want to request the government to move with speed because when the government comes on the table and there are no beacons from SRC and no allocation of resources from the Treasury, you cannot expect us to continue working as if everything is normal,” he said.

Omuse also criticised calls for university staff to comply with court orders relating to the strike, saying such directives did not address the financial concerns at the centre of the dispute.

He said workers would remain on strike until an agreement was reached, insisting that the dispute would only end when their national union leaders declared a ceasefire.

“We have decided as workers we will strike until we strike a deal. When our commanders, Dr Charles Mukwaya and Dr Constantino Wasonga, say it is a ceasefire, that is when we will ceasefire,” Omuse said.

Omuse also urged parents to make arrangements for their children to leave the university, saying learning had been disrupted by the strike.

“Learning has been completely paralysed. Make arrangements to have your child go back home because there is nothing that is going on in the university,” he said.

The strike comes amid a wider dispute between university staff unions and the government over funding, salaries and the implementation of negotiated agreements.

The workers insist they will not return to the lecture halls until the government addresses their demands.