UASU WARNS PUBLIC UNIVERSITIES ARE IN CRISIS, GIVES GOVERNMENT ONE MONTH TO ACT

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The Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) has warned that Kenya’s public university sector is facing a deepening crisis driven by underfunding, stalled collective bargaining negotiations, inadequate staffing, excessive workloads and growing reliance on part-time lecturers. 

In a statement issued on Friday, September 18, 2026, the union said negotiations for the 2025–2029 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) remain unresolved, despite an agreement reached under the November 2025 Return-to-Work Formula to conclude the process before the end of last year.

 UASU has now given the Government and the Inter-Public Universities Councils Consultative Forum (IPUCCF) one month to table a substantive financial counter-proposal, negotiate, sign and implement the agreement.
The union also called for public university academic staff salaries to be protected through Exchequer funding, arguing that financing professors’ salaries primarily through student fees is unsustainable. UASU further criticised what it described as delays by the Salaries and Remuneration Commission in approving internal CBAs, the increasing use of part-time lecturers in place of permanent staff and attempts to reduce the retirement age of academics. 

On Moi University, the union demanded an immediate suspension of the redundancy process and an independent staffing audit, citing the institution’s reported recruitment of part-time lecturers alongside plans to reduce permanent academic staff. The concerns come amid wider financial pressures facing public universities, with recent reporting putting their combined debt at about KSh69.23 billion. 

UASU’s position on retirement also comes amid ongoing legal and policy disputes. In April 2026, the Employment and Labour Relations Court at Eldoret ruled in a Moi University case that a claimant’s retirement age was 74 years under the applicable CBA. 

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