When the history of academic staff strikes and pay rows in Kenya is written, Egerton University will likely take the lion's share of the content.
Perhaps more than any other public university in Kenya, the dons in the premier Agriculture University have spent more time seeking justice.
Following negotiations between the University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) and the cash-strapped institution have been a long and painful affair, even for the neutrals.
And for a good reason, the aggrieved dons are demanding their rightful salary that was slashed by the academic institution, which is struggling to make ends meet.
Egerton University was again in the news in 2023 for the wrong reasons, leading to some of the first Year students and their parents not considering the institution as their first choice university, thanks in part to the prolonged salary dispute that was sparked by the pandemic in 2020 and aggravated by the government’s austerity measure to reduce capitation to public universities.
“A lion fights harder, but a wounded lion fights 10 times more than a normal lion. He either fights to win or dies. In that state, he always wins and Egerton University dons come 2024 will fight for their salary like a wounded lion,” said a lecturer at the institution who spoke to Nation off the record.
The struggle for justice by the dons will be heightened in the coming weeks after a consultative meeting between the management and Uasu officials collapsed.
Hundreds of dons are set to go on strike on January 8, 2024, if they are not paid the correct 2017-2021 Collective Bargain Agreement (CBA) salary scales at 100 percent.
According to Uasu national secretary general Constantine Wasonga, the strike is imminent after the management failed to comply with a court ruling.
The Employment and Labour Relations Court in a ruling in Nakuru City in 2022 ruled that the university should within 120 days show how they will implement the CBA.
“The petitioner should within 120 days being the end and the beginning of the budget cycle demonstrate how they are implementing what is in the CBA between them and the Union and in default the Respondent Union is free to initiate a fresh strike action after giving the requisite notices as the case may be….” Read the ruling in part.
A consultative meeting between the Union and the university management on December 22 collapsed like a pack of cards when the university revealed its broken financial status.
“For the remaining part of the financial year up to June 2024, not much is likely to change. Thereafter things could become worse,” said Egerton Uasu chapter secretary Grace Kibue in a statement to members.
There is a lot of tension behind the scenes as both sides were hoping for a last-minute breakthrough but it is now official it is back to season two of strikes at the Njoro-based campus.
Acting Chief Finance Officer Charles Wanjohi in a detailed outlook in financial year 2023-2024 while discussing the salary dispute with the unions revealed that the annual funds required to pay staff salaries, operations, and maintenance amounts to Sh3.6 billion.
Mr Wanjohi said that during the financial year 2023-2024, the university is operating with a deficit budget of more than Sh820 million.
“To bridge the gap and to ensure the university is operational and running, the university can pay staff salaries at 70 percent and remit employer pension contributions at five percent,” said Mr Wanjohi.
At the same time, the official blamed the introduction of a Housing levy which will gobble Sh2.1million per month from the university coffers while National Social Security Fund Tier 1 and Tier 2 will dig a financial hole of Sh1.4million per month in the university's wobbling coffers.
“This will amount to payroll cost which has put a further burden on the university,” said the Acting Chief Officer.
With no salary resolution in sight, all signs are pointing to another massive strike that will paralyse learning at the campus and ultimately shut down in 2024.
Talks between the two parties have been pending for the past three years and the union is betting the fresh strike will help push payment of their delayed salary arrears running into millions of shillings.
