Lecturers in public universities are set to down their tools on Friday, October 2, 2026.
This comes as the seven-day strike notice issued by the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) over unresolved pay and funding disputes is set to lapse at midnight.
Speaking at the union’s offices in Nairobi last week, UASU Secretary-General Dr. Constantine Wasonga said the strike follows what he described as the persistent failure by university councils, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury to honour the return-to-work formula signed on November 5, 2025.
Wasonga accused the government of failing to release funds owed to public universities, warning that the situation had left institutions struggling to operate and lecturers overstretched.
“Universities are technically insolvent because the government has not been remitting money due to them. You are going to see the mother of all strikes this season because universities are understaffed, we are overworked and we don’t have pension schemes, and you want us to take it lying down? We won’t!” he said.
He added that all universities would be closed from October 2 should the union’s grievances remained unresolved.
UASU National Chairperson Grace Nyongesa said the union was dissatisfied with the government’s handling of the issues and would not withdraw its demands without concrete commitments.
“We have our colleagues from different universities to address our issues, and we are very disappointed, and we are not going to budge. When we get out, we would want our issues addressed squarely,” Nyongesa said.
“We have been acting in good faith, but when we are pushed out to demonstrate our anger, we shall do so.”
The union has also renewed its demand for the immediate payment of outstanding arrears under the 2017–2021 and 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs).
In August, UASU demanded that the arrears be paid in full, rejecting proposals for staggered payments.
The union said the delays had placed university staff under financial strain, while no interest had been paid on the outstanding amounts despite the prolonged delays.
UASU has also raised concerns over stalled promotions, delayed gratuity payments and what it described as unilateral changes to lecturers’ salaries through government human resource instruments without consultation.
The lecturers’ union further criticised the state of funding in public universities, saying institutions were struggling because of delayed exchequer releases.
UASU officials also questioned the government’s implementation of the new university funding model, arguing that higher education policies were being introduced while universities continued to grapple with mounting financial obligations.
The union maintained that lecturers should continue to be paid directly through the National Exchequer rather than relying on student fees.
UASU has additionally urged lecturers to boycott part-time teaching arrangements, arguing that universities have increasingly relied on part-time staff instead of recruiting sufficient full-time academic staff.
Wasonga claimed that Kenya has approximately 9,000 lecturers serving more than one million university students, leaving existing academic staff heavily overstretched.
The union also questioned the government’s pledge to fully fund university students, arguing that clearing the more than KSh100 billion in pending bills owed to universities should be prioritised to stabilise the higher education sector.
The threatened strike comes amid continued disagreements between university staff unions and the government over remuneration, staffing, university financing and implementation of collective bargaining agreements.
