Learning at state universities may resume any time soon following the suspension of the nationwide lecturers and university workers strike that suspended learning in the whole country for the past two days by the Employment and Labour Relations Court.
In a ruling delivered on Thursday, Justice Stephen Radido ordered the unions to return to the negotiating table and make room for conciliation negotiations with the Ministry of Education and other parties.
This comes after the two parties felt compelled to bring an end to an age-long impasse over an arrears backlog of unpaid Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs).
“Complainant the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum has filed a trade dispute to the Cabinet Secretary for Labour,” Justice Radido stated in his ruling. “Good faith in industrial relations requires parties to conciliate in good faith. The court will therefore order an interdiction of the ongoing strike subject to conciliation.”
The action comes against the backdrop of weeks of turmoil in universities, with arrests, programs put on hold, and students stranded.
The three top-ranking unions of employees in universities the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU), Kenya University Staff Union (KUSU), and KUDHEIHA, which is representative of non-academic workers in education and health facilities had earlier suspended the strike this week.
Their wrath is against what they refer to as the ongoing failure by the government to sign the CBAs starting as early as 2017.
Epidemiology of the grievance are Ksh2.73 billion arrears for the 2021–2025 CBA, Ksh7.9 billion in arrears for the 2017–2021 agreement, and lateness in negotiating and presenting the 2025–2029 CBA.
Addressing a media briefing on September 10, UASU Secretary General Constantine Wesonga spoke his mind.
“We have used up all avenues of negotiations,” he stated. “The government and the Inter-Public Universities Council have remained insensitive to our suffering despite several meetings and formal submissions.”
In an effort to avert the strike, the government also paid Ksh2.73 billion in arrears for the 2021–2025 CBA just a day before the scheduled strike action. But the action failed to calm the storm.
Determined to continue, employees of major public universities University of Nairobi (UoN), Dedan Kimathi University of Technology (DeKUT), University of Eldoret (UOE), and Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology (JOOUST) took to the streets demonstrating for payment in full of their allowances.
Lecturers put on a nicely-shared show on social media pages as they marched out in their placards, blowing vuvuzelas, and slogans of accountability.
Following the court’s suspension of the strike, Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Migos Ogamba appealed to the unions to respect the ruling and stand down.
“We urge all university staff to comply with the court order,” he said. “The conciliation process offers a platform for fair resolution, and we’re committed to working collaboratively with all parties.”
But as of Friday morning, no official word on the court ruling had come from the unions, and the strike remained in place at most of the state universities.
