Lecturers at Moi University have warned that they will down tools if the university fails to honour a return-to-work agreement signed after prolonged industrial action in 2024 and 2025. This is despite the management confirming that it has received Sh6 billion in bailout funds.
On Friday, the Universities Academic Staff Union (UASU) accused the university of failing to respect the agreement. This latest dispute threatens to reopen old wounds at a university that has, over the years, struggled from one crisis to another, with mounting debts, delayed salaries, staff layoffs, and repeated strikes disrupting learning and tarnishing its reputation.
"We do not want disturbances when students resume in September. We do not want another industrial action. There is enough time between now and September to settle these issues,” said Dr Constantine Wasonga, UASU’s national secretary-general.
The warning is the latest sign that Moi University's troubles are far from over despite repeated government interventions aimed at rescuing the institution from financial collapse.
According to UASU, the university diverted the money to pay staff salaries when it faced acute cash flow problems earlier this year.
“We are now demanding that the money be used for the purposes for which it was intended. There was Sh500 million that was supposed to be released by the end of January, and it was indeed released. However, the university council used that money to pay salaries because of financial constraints at the time. Now that the university has received the Sh6 billion bailout, it should recoup the Sh500 million from those funds and channel it to the purposes it was originally meant to serve,” said Dr Wasonga.
The union says that the Sh500 million was allocated for specific obligations, including Sh100 million to offset staff SACCO loans; another Sh100 million to address specific bank loan issues; Sh150 million for pension schemes, provident funds and gratuity payments; Sh50 million for union dues; Sh50 million for benevolent funds; Sh40 million for staff welfare programmes; and Sh30 million for group life cover.
UASU argues that all these commitments remain outstanding and should now be settled from the Sh6 billion government bailout.
The second dispute concerns Sh1.25 billion in salary arrears that the union says accumulated because Moi University allegedly continued paying staff using salary scales under the 2013-2017 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) instead of the negotiated rates under the 2017-2021 agreement.
"This is not the same money that was paid last year. These arrears arose because staff were underpaid for years. The Sh1.25 billion was supposed to be factored into the 2025/26 financial year under the return-to-work agreement," said UASU.
The union accused the university management of creating confusion by linking the arrears to the Sh3.9 billion released by the government last year for implementation of another CBA.
"I saw the council confusing the Sh3.9 billion that was released by the government last year with this Sh1.25 billion. They are not the same thing," said Dr Wasonga.
According to UASU, the arrears arose because staff were underpaid for years after the university failed to implement the salary rates contained in the 2017-2021 CBA.
"Moi University staff ought to have been paid according to the 2017-2021 CBA rates, but they were paid using the 2013-2017 rates. That is what generated the Sh1.25 billion arrears. Staff were underpaid and that money must now be paid," the union said.
Dr Wasonga said the return-to-work agreement required the Sh1.25 billion to be factored into the 2025/2026 financial year budget and argued that the latest government bailout provides an opportunity to resolve the issue.
The union wants all outstanding obligations settled before students return for the September semester, warning that failure to implement the agreement could trigger fresh tensions on campus.
"Come September, we do not want disturbances. We do not want interference with learning. This is June. There is enough time to settle all these disputes before students resume," said Dr Wasonga.
