Lecturers and other university staff at Maasai Mara University have joined the nationwide strike by public university workers, accusing the government of failing to honour negotiated agreements and adequately fund public institutions.
The workers, drawn from the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya Universities Staff Union (KUSU) and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), have downed their tools amid a dispute over the implementation of the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
Speaking at Maasai Mara University, UASU Narok Chapter Secretary Bonface Isalambo said staff had been pushed into industrial action by the government’s failure to fulfil commitments made under the agreement.
Isalambo criticised the current university funding model, particularly the principle that “finances follow the student”, arguing that it places an unfair burden on students and university workers.
He said public universities should be funded through the Exchequer like other public institutions rather than relying heavily on student fees to sustain their operations.
“The nation that starves its university is starving its future,” Isalambo said, arguing that lecturers should not be expected to subsidise the government while students are asked to finance public universities.
He further opposed what he described as attempts to turn public universities into private entities “through the back door”, insisting that university staff are public officers whose remuneration should be supported through public funding.
Isalambo said the unions had been waiting for the negotiation, signing, registration and implementation of the 2025–2029 CBA for more than a year.
He said the agreement was expected to address issues including the harmonisation of allowances, basic salaries, car loans and mortgage benefits.
“The CBA was supposed to take care of things such as harmonisation of allowances, basic salary, car loan and mortgage,” he said, questioning why university workers were yet to benefit from provisions being implemented for other public servants.
The unions have previously said negotiations for the 2025–2029 CBA should have commenced within 30 days of the Return-to-Work Formula signed in November 2025. They accuse the government and university employers of failing to honour that commitment.
The nationwide strike began on October 2 after negotiations between the unions and the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) failed to produce an agreement.
The three unions rejected an employer counter-offer that proposed, among other measures, an annual four per cent salary increment, saying it did not address their demands on pay, allowances, medical cover and staffing.
IPUCCF’s recommendations to the Salaries and Remuneration Commission had proposed an 8.25 per cent cumulative increase in basic salaries over the four-year CBA period, implemented at two per cent annually. The unions had sought substantially higher increases.
The unions have also raised concerns over staff shortages and heavy workloads, particularly amid increasing student enrolment in public universities.
Also speaking at Maasai Mara University, Galfen Omuse called on the government to move with speed to resolve the stalemate.
Omuse said workers could not continue waiting for government directives or court orders while their concerns over salaries and working conditions remained unresolved.
“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,” he said.
He maintained that the strike would continue until the unions reached an agreement with the government.
“We have decided as workers we will strike until we strike a deal. When our commanders, Dr Charles Mukhwaya and Dr Constantino Wasonga, say it is a ceasefire, that is when we will ceasefire,” Omuse said.
The unions have maintained that their members will remain on strike until their demands are addressed.
Omuse also advised parents to make arrangements for their children to leave the university campus, saying teaching and learning activities had been disrupted by the industrial action.
“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 is now affecting public universities across the country, with lecturers and other workers demanding progress on the 2025–2029 CBA, improved remuneration, better medical benefits and increased staffing.
The unions have indicated that they are willing to return to negotiations but insist that the outstanding issues must first be addressed.
