Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba has told public university lecturers that the government cannot pay all arrears owed at once, insisting it can only be settled in two phases.
This comes as the lecturers’ strike enters its second month with education in public universities facing a crisis.
Speaking in Kwale County when he monitored administration of the Kenya Certificate of Secondary Education (KCSE) exams, CS Ogamba said that the final offer made to striking dons to pay them 50 percent of their Sh7.9 billion arrears this November and 50 percent by next year July is the best they will get.
“Last week we gave them the offer of paying them in tranches but they still rejected it, insisting that they want to be paid the whole amount in lump sum. This is a historical debt and amount. If you take more from the budget, other programmes will suffer because there aren't enough resources to undertake other programmes because of cuts,” he said.
He added: “It's not that the government does not want to pay, the funds are not available because they were not budgeted for.”
Last week, University Academic Staff Union (Uasu) members met with the government but did not sign a deal.
According to CS Ogamba, its offer was that the Ministry of Education does some reallocations through a supplementary budget and pay part of the dues to lecturers this month, while the balance is factored in the next financial year and paid in July.
“That is how the government works, but they rejected this,” he said.
Last week, Uasu Secretary-General Dr Constantine Wasonga said the phased pay proposal was presented to the union’s National Executive Council (NEC) and National Delegates Conference (NDC) and rejected entirely.
"Lecturers say that they do not disseminate knowledge in phases. No one should contemplate or imagine that we can be paid in phases,” he said last Friday.
CBA talks
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba.
On negotiations for a new Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA), CS Ogamba said it was unnecessary to discuss this while there's an ongoing strike as that would compromise decisions made.
“My appeal to them is that they call off the strike and take two months to deal with the CBA issue separately...We cannot go on strike during negotiations," he explained.
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