A fresh crisis is looming in Kenya’s public universities after lecturers announced plans to strike on October 2 over unpaid CBA arrears and delays in concluding a new agreement with the government.
The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) issued a seven-day strike notice on Thursday, accusing the Ministry of Education, university councils and the National Treasury of failing to honour commitments made under the Return-to-Work Formula signed in November 2025.
UASU Secretary-General Constantine Wasonga said the union had been pushed to take industrial action after the government failed to provide a financial counter-proposal for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The union wants the new CBA concluded and funded through the National Exchequer, arguing that lecturers are public officers whose salaries should not depend on student fee collections.
“We are not going to allow our salaries to be paid from students’ fees,” Wasonga said, questioning what would happen to lecturers’ salaries when students fail to pay fees.
The dispute also involves billions of shillings in earlier CBA arrears. UASU has previously claimed that Sh7.9 billion remains unpaid from the 2017–2021 agreement, although the government has disputed the figure.
Education officials have previously given a much lower figure for the outstanding amount, meaning the Sh7.9 billion claim remains contested.
The latest standoff comes barely a week after UASU gave the government one month to conclude and implement the 2025–2029 CBA or face another strike.
The union says the government has also failed to give the Salaries and Remuneration Commission a written commitment on how the new CBA will be funded.
According to UASU, SRC told university-sector unions that it could not provide the financial parameters needed to advance negotiations because neither the Ministry of Education nor Treasury had provided the required funding commitment.
If the strike goes ahead at midnight on October 2, teaching in public universities could be disrupted as thousands of students begin the 2026 academic year.
UASU has warned that it will proceed with the strike unless the government addresses its demands during the seven-day notice period.
The union is also demanding better staffing, medical cover and protection of lecturers’ status as public officers as negotiations over the new CBA continue.
