By Wasike Elvis

Teaching and learning activities at Moi University have been disrupted after lecturers and other university workers officially downed their tools in solidarity with a nationwide strike called by university workers' unions.

The Moi University UASU chapter launched the strike on Friday, October 2, 2026, joining academic staff and other workers in public universities across the country in demanding the implementation of the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The strike involves members of the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions and Hospitals Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA).

Addressing members during the launch of the strike at Moi University, UASU chapter officials said the industrial action is specifically about the 2025–2029 CBA and should not be confused with previous collective bargaining agreements.

Moi University UASU Chapter Chairperson Prof. David Koskei said the current dispute concerns a national CBA and not an agreement dating back to previous years.

"This strike is for the 2025–2029 CBA. It is not a local CBA, it is a national CBA," the chapter leadership said, stressing that the current negotiations should not be linked to previous agreements.

Moi University UASU Chapter Secretary Prof. Robert Oduori said the CBA had been taken through reconciliation last year, with an agreement that negotiations would be completed within 30 days.

He said nearly a year later, the university workers were still waiting for the agreement to be implemented.

Oduori said the unions had presented their proposals but accused the government side of failing to conclude the negotiations.

He also rejected suggestions that universities should use students' fees to finance lecturers' salaries, arguing that public university workers are public servants whose salaries should be financed through the Exchequer.

"This is a university. It is not even a private institution. It is a public institution," Oduori said, calling on the government to provide funding for salaries of lecturers and other university workers.

He further urged the government to move quickly to resolve the dispute to prevent prolonged disruption of learning.

Oduori said lecturers would be ready to return to classrooms if a substantive agreement was reached and implemented, but warned union officials against calling off the strike based only on promises.

He said the chapter had instructed its national leadership that any return-to-work arrangement should be backed by actual implementation, particularly payment of the first phase of the negotiated agreement.

According to Oduori, lecturers did not want a situation where the strike was suspended based on promises only for implementation to be delayed again.

He said the chapter would remain peaceful but would continue with the strike until the outstanding issues were addressed.

Moi University Internal CBA Issues

Oduori also raised separate issues affecting Moi University, including outstanding payments linked to the 2017–2021 CBA.

He said the university still had an outstanding amount of about KSh1.25 billion owed to staff and called on the government to address the matter separately from the current national strike.

He also referred to commitments under a return-to-work formula relating to pension, outstanding loans and other obligations.

The chapter secretary urged the Cabinet Secretary for Education to address the Moi University-specific issues while negotiations on the national CBA continue.

He said the chapter had given the CS the benefit of the doubt following assurances that the matter would be addressed.

Oduori warned, however, that Moi University workers could remain on strike if the internal issues were not resolved even after a national agreement was reached.

"We are very peaceful. Please call us," he said, urging the government to engage the university workers and resolve the outstanding matters.

He officially declared the strike at Moi University, saying the institution had joined colleagues in public universities across Kenya in the industrial action.

UASU Rejects Proposed Salary Increase

The chapter officials also rejected the proposed salary increment being offered to university workers, arguing that it did not adequately address inflation and the rising cost of living.

UASU officials said the proposal presented during negotiations was inadequate and insisted that annual salary increments should take inflation into account.

The officials cited an inflation rate of about 6.5 per cent and argued that any annual adjustment should at least cushion workers against inflation.

UASU Chapter Treasurer and National Trustee Jane Michael , who said she sits on the union's national negotiation team, said the union had participated in negotiations with the employer side before the talks reached a deadlock.

Michael said the union had been seeking guidance from the Salaries and Remuneration Commission (SRC) during the negotiations, including advisory parameters for basic salary and annual increments.

She said the union had presented its proposal but rejected the offer of a three per cent increment on basic salaries.

According to Michael, the proposed three per cent increase does not include the annual increment component, which she argued should be considered separately in view of inflation.

She said deductions such as the Social Health Authority contributions, housing levy and other statutory deductions would further reduce the benefit workers would receive from the proposed increment.

Michael described the offer as unacceptable and said the chapter had decided to join the national strike to press for a better agreement.

She also reiterated the union's objection to proposals that university workers should rely on students' fees to finance their salaries.

"We are a service provider. We provide services. We teach and go," Ligon said, arguing that public university lecturers should be treated like other public servants when it comes to government financing.

She questioned why lecturers should be expected to generate their own salaries from students' fees when the government controls the financing and fee-payment system in public universities.

Michael said university lecturers should not be treated differently from other public servants when it comes to remuneration and government funding.

"Our salaries must come from the Exchequer like others," she said.

The Moi University chapter has consequently joined the wider national industrial action, with university workers maintaining that they are ready to resume teaching once a substantive agreement is reached and the agreed terms begin to be implemented.

The strike now puts pressure on the government and university employers to return to the negotiating table as students in public universities face disruptions to lectures, examinations, academic supervision and other university services.