Moi University is facing a fresh labour crisis after management moved to retrench 75 senior lecturers, including professors, even as it advertises for part-time lecturers to fill teaching positions, prompting the Academic Staff Union of Universities (UASU) to threaten industrial action.
UASU has rejected the redundancy plan announced last week, accusing the cash-strapped university of using financial difficulties to target experienced academics and undermine teaching, research and postgraduate programmes.
The union says the move is contradictory because the university is seeking to shed permanent and pensionable staff while simultaneously recruiting part-time lecturers to undertake what it says is essentially the same work.
“On behalf of the Universities’ Academic Staff Union (UASU), Moi University Chapter, we register our strongest displeasure and total rejection of the decision by the University Management to declare 75 of our members redundant while simultaneously advertising for part-time lecturers to fill the same positions. We find serious contradictions in the university management’s notice of redundancy,” said Prof Robert Oduori, the UASU chapter secretary.
Uasu rejects Moi University's plan to declare 75 lecturers redundant, threatens strike
The latest dispute comes days after Moi University admitted more than 8,000 first-year students, with UASU arguing that the institution is already operating with a depleted teaching workforce.
In a letter dated August 18, 2026, addressed to UASU, Acting Vice-Chancellor Prof Kiplagat Kotut formally communicated the university’s intention to retrench professors, senior lecturers and lecturers.
Prof Kotut cited sharp declines in student enrolment and falling revenues, saying the financial pressures had left the university unable to meet basic operational obligations and its monthly payroll.
“To ensure financial sustainability of the University, a structural realignment and reduction of the workforce has become unavoidable,” stated Prof Kotut.
On Monday, the union condemned the redundancy plan as ill-advised, saying it would deepen rather than resolve the university’s financial and operational problems.
Management had earlier announced renewed plans to reduce its workforce, citing declining student enrolment and an unsustainable wage bill.
But UASU says the university’s current problems are the result of poor management and the failure to establish a comprehensive mechanism for addressing the crisis in consultation with all stakeholders.
Prof Oduori described the redundancy exercise as a “sham” targeting some of the university’s strongest performers, warning that it could undermine efforts to restore the institution’s declining fortunes.
“It is a sham redundancy. Under Section 40 of the Employment Act, 2007, redundancy must arise from a genuine abolition of posts due to lack of work, not a desire to replace permanent and pensionable staff with cheap casual labour. You cannot claim there is no work when you are inviting applications for the same work the next day. This is not redundancy; it is unfair termination disguised as restructuring,” said Prof Oduori in a press statement read to journalists in Eldoret.
Speaking at the university’s School of Medicine Town Campus, Prof Oduori questioned the timing of the planned job cuts, arguing that they would do little to revive or restructure the institution.
He said it was particularly troubling that the university was shedding experienced academic staff while recruiting part-time lecturers, a move he said could weaken academic standards at one of the region’s prestigious institutions.
“You fire and hire at the same time? How does this address purported financial challenges the university allegedly faces? You fire at a time when the staff on the ground are overloaded. What kind of workload analysis did you do?” he asked.
Prof Oduori disputed management’s claim that student numbers had declined, saying admissions through the Kenya Universities and Colleges Central Placement Service (KUCCPS) had increased significantly in recent years.
“Statistics do not lie. Student numbers at Moi University have been rising, not declining, over the years. During the most recent three (3) intakes, 2024, 2025, and now 2026, Moi University has received from KUCCPS respectively 3000 plus, 5000 plus and 8000 plus students,” he said.
He added that the university continues to run vibrant Privately Sponsored Students Programme (PSSP) programmes in several schools, with the Nairobi Campus dedicated entirely to PSSP programmes.
However, he said staff numbers had continued to fall through natural attrition and resignations without corresponding recruitment.
The dons described the redundancy plan as an attack on quality education, particularly following the admission of more than 8,000 first-year students.
UASU also accused the university management of failing to provide an environment in which lecturers can effectively undertake teaching, research and postgraduate supervision.
“It is a direct attack on quality education. Universities are not factories. Quality teaching, research, supervision, and mentorship require stable, secure faculty who can invest in students and research. Replacing 75 experienced full-time faculty with part-timers is the height of casualisation of academic work. It will lower academic standards, erode research output, and devalue the degrees of our students,” said Prof Oduori.
The union is demanding the immediate withdrawal of the redundancy notices and the suspension of the recruitment of part-time lecturers in the affected departments until consultations are held with all stakeholders.
It has given the university seven days to engage the union, warning that failure to do so will trigger industrial action and legal proceedings.
“As UASU, we demand immediate withdrawal of the advert for part-time lecturers in the affected departments. The University must engage the Union in genuine consultation within 7 days. Failure to do so, we have instructed our members not to cede any teaching materials, not to conduct any handover, and we shall commence industrial action including a strike and legal action in the Employment and Labour Relations Court,” added Prof Oduori.
UASU chapter chair Prof David Kosgei called on the Government to intervene through the Ministry of Labour, Ministry of Education, Commission for University Education and the Federation of Kenya Employers.
Moi University Woes Continue: University Academic Staff Union’s Moi University’s Chapter Chairman Prof David Kosgei (centre), the Chapter’s Secretary Prof Robert Oduori (right), the union’s National Trustee Dr Jane Michael, and other officials during a press conference in Eldoret City, Uasin Gishu County on August 24, 2026.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
Prof Kosgei warned that continued retrenchment of senior academics could undermine efforts to revive the institution.
He said associate professors and senior lecturers were central to postgraduate programmes, research projects, supervision and academic mentorship.
“Actually, sending home associate professors and senior lecturers who are actually the heartbeat of postgraduate programmes at the university, unless you want to kill those programmes and research projects. These are lead researchers who mentor postgraduate students in supervision and research guidance unless Moi University wants to kill core roles of university education,” said Prof Kosgei.
He described the move as immoral, accusing management of failing to give adequate consideration to essential academic programmes.
UASU National Trustee Jane Michael also questioned the university’s handling of its human resources, calling for an independent audit of the institution’s human resource department.
University Academic Staff Union’s Moi University’s Chapter Chairman Prof David Kosgei (left), the union’s National Trustee Dr. Jane Michael second (left), the Chapter’s Secretary Prof Robert Oduori (centre), and other officials during a press conference in Eldoret City, Uasin Gishu County on August 24, 2026, against a move by the management to declare 75 academic staff members redundant.
Photo credit: Jared Nyataya | Nation Media Group
Ms Michael said other universities with bigger debts had adopted alternative approaches to debt management instead of using redundancy to cut their workforce.
“Other universities have had debts but resorted to better ways of debt management, but Moi University is using redundancy to target innocent lecturers, hence killing academic research and quality teaching at the institution,” she said.
She further alleged that corruption and poor auditing had marred the redundancy process, claiming management was using the exercise to create employment opportunities for preferred candidates.
“The university management is not sincere with its payroll. Junior employees at the university are being used to audit their seniors. We want audit done by an independent body and let the result be given to us on an open table we discuss together as stakeholders to avert employment of parasites at this university and the government must move in swiftly to address the plight of the university before it collapses,” she added.
But management says the restructuring has become necessary because of the university’s deteriorating financial position.
In May 2025, Moi University attempted to lay off more than 900 employees, including 120 lecturers, citing similar financial constraints.
The exercise was halted after the Employment and Labour Relations Court suspended the retrenchments, ruling that the university had failed to engage unions in mandatory and meaningful consultations.
The court directed management to follow due process under Section 40 of the Employment Act, 2007.
During recent appearances before the National Assembly Education Committee, Moi University management disclosed that the institution was carrying a debt deficit of Sh8.8 billion and more than Sh10 billion in pending bills.
Appearing before MPs in July 2026, Prof Kotut said the university was undertaking a comprehensive workload analysis to identify staff considered redundant.
“We realized some lecturers have actually not been teaching. They are parasitising on others, so we are saying that since they do not have anything to do, we will release them,” Prof Kotut told Parliament.
He also said the university’s student population had fallen from more than 40,000 at its peak to about 12,000.
Under the proposed framework, selection of individual staff will be guided by Section 40(1)(c) of the Employment Act, with the Last-In, First-Out (LIFO) principle applied alongside performance history and operational needs.
