For more than two decades, Sarah Chemel and her former colleagues have waited for money they say they earned decades ago.
Now in their 60s, 70s and 80s, the former Moi University subordinate staff are frail, struggling with medical bills and financial hardship and watching the years they spent pursuing their dues slip away.
The workers were among more than 200 subordinate staff retrenched from Moi University's Chepkoilel campus, now the University of Eldoret, on March 31, 2001.
Sixty-two of them eventually went to court, beginning a legal battle that has lasted more than two decades. On October 9, 2025, Employment and Labour Relations Court Judge Maureen Onyango ruled that their retrenchment was unfair because the university had failed to give proper notice to the union and the Labour Officer.
The court ordered Moi University to pay each claimant four months' consolidated salary at their last rate of pay and gave the institution 30 days to settle the dues. Yet months later, the retirees say they are still waiting.
“We have been in court for over two decades seeking our benefits,” Ms Chemel said, her voice trembling with emotion.
“The court ordered that we be paid, yet the university continues to take us in circles. I am asking President William Ruto to intervene. Let them give me my money, no matter how little it is,” she said.
Former employees of Moi University, Chepkoilel Campus, (now University of Eldoret) display termination letters from their employer.
Photo credit: File | Nation
Ms Chemel said 201 workers were affected by the retrenchment, although only 62 eventually pursued the matter in court.
For the elderly former subordinate staff, the issue is no longer simply about the circumstances of their dismissal. It is about whether they will live long enough to receive what a court has already ordered the university to pay.
They say the amounts involved may appear small by institutional standards but are significant to elderly people struggling to survive.
A university payment computation contained in a March 10, 2026 letter from Assistant Legal Officer Dorcas Mengich to the claimants' advocates, referenced MU/CSE/192, puts the individual payouts at between Sh11,000 and Sh30,000.
For 71-year-old Joseph Ng'ang'a, who spent 17 years working for the university, his calculated compensation is Sh25,000. He says the prolonged wait has become a race against time.
“I am too old to keep begging for what the court awarded me. Give me my money before I die,” Mr Ng'ang'a said, holding back tears.
He told journalists in Eldoret on Monday that the financial strain had made it difficult to meet the costs associated with old age, including prescription medicine.
“We have come to you journalists to help us get an audience with higher authorities of this country. My body is tired, and my prescription medicine costs money I simply do not have. Tell them to give me my money before I die,” he said.
The former workers first moved to court on May 8, 2002, seeking Sh31.1 million in unpaid dues. Their claims included payment for unsupplied uniforms, overtime, golden handshake balances, training and transport allowances, leave allowance, gratuity and severance pay.
In case ELRCC/E034/2024, Agnes Ngatia and 61 others argued that their retrenchment was unlawful and discriminatory and violated the terms of their employment.
Moi University defended the retrenchment, saying it followed a government directive aimed at reducing the public-sector wage bill.
Moi University main campus.
Photo credit: File | Nation
Through its legal representatives, the university maintained that it had held consultations with the workers and their union, the Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA), before the dismissals.
Justice Onyango, however, found that the retrenchment was unfair because proper notice had not been given to the union and the Labour Officer. She ordered the university to pay each claimant compensation equivalent to four months' consolidated salary.
The judge, however, dismissed the claim for a Sh240,000 golden handshake for each retrenched worker, saying the claimants had not proved that they were entitled to it under their employment terms.
The university did not appeal the judgment. Still, the retirees say their court victory has not translated into payment.
For Ms Ngatia, the lead claimant, the wait has also carried a human cost beyond the financial hardship.
“Many of the people we walked into court with in 2002 are already in their graves,” she said.
“We gave the best years of our youth to build that university. It breaks my heart that after all these years of service, we are treated as invisible, forced to plead for pennies while our health deteriorates,” she said.
The retirees say they spent their working years maintaining the university's grounds, cleaning lecture halls, serving students and providing other services that helped keep the institution running.
Today, they say, age and poverty have replaced the routine of employment.
Their frustration comes against the backdrop of fresh financial difficulties at Moi University. In May 2025, the university terminated nearly 900 staff, including 120 lecturers, through what management described as retrenchment and redundancy.
The measures were presented as part of major cost-cutting efforts to address deep financial deficits and declining student enrolment.
A week before the retirees spoke to journalists, another group of retrenched employees from the university's main campus staged a protest in Kesses, accusing the institution of irregular termination.
