Employees of Egerton University were the worst hit by unpaid salaries in the financial year ended June 2024, accounting for nearly three-quarters of the 2,066 public service workers with accumulated pay arrears.
A report by the Public Service Commission (PSC) revealed that the government closed the fiscal year with Sh2.49 billion in salary arrears, much of which was owed to university staff.
During the year, public universities constituted 74.7 per cent (1,544) of workers who were not paid, mainly owing to financial woes by institutions during a period that witnessed a wave of strikes by lecturers and other university workers.
“The highest number of officers not paid were drawn from public universities, with 1,544 (74.7 per cent), followed by State Corporations and SAGAs, with 273 (13.2 per cent).
“Out of the 1,544 officers in public universities who did not receive their salaries as of 30th June 2024, Egerton University had the highest number, with a total of 1,485 (96 per cent) of staff not paid and financial constraints as the key reason for nonpayment,” the PSC report notes.
Other public institutions that did not pay salaries included the Kenya Wildlife Service (KWS) failing to pay 68 workers, the Ministry of Defence (44), the State Department for Lands and Physical Planning (42), the National Treasury (42), the National Youth Service (42), Kenya Power (38), state department for livestock development (36) and Kenya Revenue Authority (25).
Failure to pay workers was the highlight of financial difficulties many public institutions went through amid delays in disbursements of funds from the National Treasury and their inability to meet budgetary needs.
Public universities last year were affected by a wave of strikes initiated by lecturers and non-teaching staff over salary rows, which disrupted operations of the higher learning institutions for months until the government intervened and brokered a return-to-work formula where it promised to settle Sh9.7 billion in the 2021-2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA).
The PSC report showed that a majority (84 per cent) of government workers went unpaid for periods of between seven months and a year, 189 (9.1 per cent) were not paid for periods of six months or less, and 129 officers were not paid for periods of over 1 year.
The PSC added that Sh2.3 billion (94 per cent) of the unpaid salaries was outstanding for over a year, Sh98,836,434 (four per cent) was outstanding for seven months and a year, while Sh53,687,848 (two per cent) was outstanding for a period of six months or below.
The report notes that the most cited reason for non-payment of salaries was financial constraints which affected 1,494 (72 per cent) officers, and 372 officers facing disciplinary action.
Over two-thirds of the unpaid staff were workers at the technical and operative level, 240 of the workers were in senior management, and 351 staff at the middle management level.
