UoN lecturers demand transparency in VC recruitment

Lecturers at the University of Nairobi want the outcome of the recruitment process for the Vice Chancellor (VC) made public, and other senior management positions at the institution filled substantively.

The lecturers, under the Universities Academic Staff Union (Uasu), University of Nairobi (UoN) chapter, raised the concerns following a recent advertisement by the University Council seeking to recruit a VC alongside other senior management staff.

The union argues the recruitment of a substantive VC had already gone through all the required stages, with the Public Service Commission (PSC) conducting interviews and shortlisting three professors for appointment.

Any of the shortlisted candidates, the union says, was qualified and ready to take up the position once appointed by the relevant authority.

“The public has spent money on this entire process, and we are concerned as to why the Council is re-advertising the position before releasing the outcome of the interviews that were already conducted,” said Dr Richard Bosire, the Uasu-UoN Chapter chairman.

Among the three who had been shortlisted for the VC position is Prof Bitange Ndemo who declinedto take up the role, citing procedural irregularities in the appointment process.

The UoN Council appointed Prof Margaret Hutchinson on acting capacity and later renewed her tenure on May 9, 2025, for another six months, a term that has since lapsed.

Uasu is now demanding the appointment of substantive office holders in top university management, including the positions of VC and other key roles such as Finance Officer, Human Resource/Personnel Officer, Estates Manager, and Procurement Manager.

Uasu-UoN Chapter Secretary Wekesa Maloba noted that the position of Deputy Vice-Chancellor in charge of Human Resources (DVC-HR), currently held in an acting capacity, was conspicuously missing from the December 16 advertisement.

The union also expressed concern over the prolonged acting appointments of senior support staff, noting that offices such as Finance, Personnel, Estates, and Procurement are critical to the effective running of the university.

Dr Maloba noted that these are fulcrum offices that support the daily operations of the university, yet they remain occupied in acting capacities.

“Uasu is demanding that the new council addresses these matters decisively to assure staff that the era of sinister plots is behind us,” he said.

Additionally, the union is calling for the reinstatement of about 30 senior members of staff who were removed from the university payroll following the signing of the 2021–2025 Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) on November 23, 2024.

While the CBA clearly sets the retirement age of academic staff at 74 years, Uasu says some senior staff members who had not attained the stipulated age by the time the CBA was signed remain off the payroll more than a year later.

“We demand the unconditional reinstatement of this cadre of staff to the university payroll, full payment of their delayed dues, and their readmission into the scheme of service as stipulated in the 2021–2025 CBA,” said Dr Maloba.

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