UASU gives government seven days strike notice

NAIROBI, Kenya—Kenya’s public universities are facing another disruption after the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) issued a seven-day strike notice, giving the government until October 2 to resolve a long-running dispute over lecturers’ terms and funding.

UASU says its members will down their tools at midnight on Friday, October 2, if the government fails to negotiate, sign and begin implementing the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).

The union says the decision follows the failure by university councils, the Ministry of Education and the National Treasury to honour a Return-to-Work Formula signed on November 5, 2025.

UASU is also protesting the government’s failure to table a financial counter-proposal for the 2025–2029 CBA, with negotiations having remained unresolved nearly a year after they began.

At the centre of the dispute is the question of who should finance the agreement.

The union is demanding a written commitment that the CBA will be funded through the National Exchequer, arguing that academic staff in public universities are public officers whose remuneration should be secured through public funds.

UASU has rejected any arrangement that would effectively make student fees or market-based funding a source of lecturers’ salaries.

The union says the Salaries and Remuneration Commission informed university-sector unions on September 21 that neither the Ministry of Education nor the National Treasury had provided a written commitment on funding through the National Exchequer. UASU says the lack of that commitment has affected the negotiations by preventing the necessary financial advice from being issued.

UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga said the union had been left with little option but to issue the strike notice after repeated attempts to resolve the dispute.

The union has also linked the CBA dispute to wider concerns over the financial position of public universities, staffing levels and the ability of institutions to meet their obligations.

For thousands of students, the latest notice raises the prospect of another interruption to academic programmes if the dispute is not resolved before the October 2 deadline.

UASU maintains that fair and predictable remuneration for academic staff is necessary for the stability and quality of public university education.

The government and university councils now have seven days to address the union’s demands and avert the planned nationwide industrial action.