Panic has gripped the financially troubled Moi University after it dismissed more than 300 of its staff to cut down on operational costs, three months after a new management team was appointed to salvage it.
Some 324 workers on a contract basis have been issued with dismissal letters due to what the management has attributed to reduced workload occasioned by the drastic decline in the student enrolment rate.
“You are aware, your three-month contract expires on March 31, 2025. You are also aware that the student numbers have drastically reduced resulting in a substantial reduction of workload that had earlier necessitated procuring extra workforce on contract terms.
Consequently, therefore, the university is not in a position to continue procuring workforce on contract terms,” said a notice on non-renewal of the contract signed by Prof Khaemba Ongeti, the acting Deputy Vice-Chancellor, Administration, Planning and Strategy.
The notice dated March 13 directed the affected workers to clear with the relevant departments as they prepare to exit the institution at the end of the month.
“The university Management Board resolved that you be released upon expiry of your current contract and you are required to clear with all the relevant departments and sections in the university,” added the terminal notice.
The workers mainly casuals in security, cleaning, hostels, and library department among other sections will receive pending and unpaid six months’ salary-January to June 2023, 15 days’ salary in lieu of notice, 15 days’ salary for each year worked and salary for March 2025.
The dilemma facing the university have been attributed to the ballooning wage bill over the years that remains unsustainable, gobbling up to 70 per cent of the capitation from the Exchequer.
According to reliable sources within the management board, the move not to renew the contract for casual works has been informed by the declining student enrolment from 50,000 in 2015 to 27,000 in 2021, closure of non-viable campuses, reduced exchequer funding due to the implementation of differentiated Unit Cost (DUC) in computing the recurrent capitation and rising cost of personnel enrolment due to National Collective Bargaining Agreements (CBAs) that have not been fully funded.
The university is mulling a reduction in staffing levels that will call for ‘compulsory redundancies’.
The communities neighboring the university have demanded fairness in the redundancy of staff as the institution moves to align the human resources to the existing workload.
“The management board should engage the workers and ensure that they do not suffer psychological and socio-economic hardships even as they exit the current place of work,” said Hillary Mutai, former civic leader of Chuiyat ward.
The members of three unions – the University Academic Staff Union –(UASU), Kenya University Staff Union (KUSU), and Kenya Union of Domestic, Hotels, Educational Institutions, Hospitals and Allied Workers (KUDHEIHA) went on industrial strike last year to protest over non-implementation of CBA (2017-2021), non-remittances, among other grievances.
The Ministry of Education last year appointed a new management team to salvage the financially troubled Moi University to reclaim its lost glory.
Education Cabinet Secretary Julius Ogamba appointed Prof Noah Midamba the new council chairman after President William Ruto promised to constitute a committee to evaluate the scale of the crisis facing the university and recommend a long-lasting solution.
Others are Prof Ronald Wasike, Dr Mercy Nyambura Kanyara, Dr Edwin Sambili, and Anne Weceke Makori as members of the university council.
“I have what it takes to reform and redeem Moi University. Together with my team, we promise to achieve greatness and urge leaders to own challenges emanating from their leadership and move on,” said Prof Midamba.
The council has consequently appointed Prof Kiplagat Kotut, the immediate former Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic, Research, and Extension) at the University of Embu, interim VC to lead the university.
President Ruto, while on a tour of his home county of Uasin Gishu early this year, promised to constitute a committee to evaluate the scale of challenges facing Moi University and recommend a long-lasting solution.
He disclosed plans to overhaul the management and allocate adequate resources to salve the financially troubled institution of Higher learning.
“We will put in place an efficient management team and allocate sufficient resources so that Moi University can thrive like other public universities,” said President Ruto last Friday during a tour of his home tuff of Uasin Gishu County.
The Ethic and Anti-Corruption Commission (EACC) and the Directorate of Criminal Investigations (DCI) are probing financial and managerial mismanagement at the cash-strapped institution.
Among financial irregularities under probe at the university include failure to remit Sh4 billion in payroll deductions, defaulted on a Sh3 billion loan owed to Rivatex East Africa Limited, and accumulated Sh1.1 billion in unpaid bills as of June 2020.
